EN
Men's violence against women in intimate relationships is a pervasive and serious social problem
that negatively impacts a women’s life in a multitude of ways. Economic abuse is one tactic
commonly used by an abuser to control their partner's financial resources and independence.
Unfortunately, there is limited research on this form of intimate partner violence, especially in the
context of Sweden. The aim of this study was to illuminate the issue of economic abuse by
exploring how social workers at Swedish helping agencies understand economic abuse, its impact
on women and what they believe their role is in addressing it. A qualitative exploratory case study
design was used in this study. Data was collected with semi-structured interviews of eight
respondents from five agencies in Västra Götaland county, in addition to policy documents and
practice manuals scrutinized for their content. The thematic analysis used revealed five themes:
social workers' awareness; normalisation; cultural dimensions; complexities of intervention; and
navigating through the barriers of bureaucracies, which were analyzed through a liberal feminist
conceptual framework.
These findings suggest that social workers' have a sophisticated awareness and understanding of
economic abuse and its damaging consequences. Additionally, social worker’s identify a clear
role in responding to economic abuse in their crisis intervention. This study sheds light on areas of
social policies and practice that can be improved to recognise and respond to economic violence
more adequately as it requires more long-term solutions than just the provision of safety and
protection. Additionally, it illustrates the importance of social workers' well-informed
understandings and insights of economic IPV in contributing to policy and practice development
as well as empirical research on violence against women.