Social work perspectives on barriers and pathways to support for young perpetrators of violence

Young people who both experience and use violence often have complex backgrounds marked by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Within child welfare, interventions addressing adversity may be important, but participation depends on relational, practical, and organisational conditions that make such interventions meaningful and accessible. This article examines social workers’ perspectives on barriers and strategies for engaging young people aged 15–21 who are involved with Swedish Child Welfare Services (CWS) because of repeated or serious use of violence in interventions addressing adversity. The empirical material consists of interviews with social workers (n = 11) and workshop survey documents (n = 8) from reflective workshops with approximately 60 practitioners in three CWS districts in Stockholm. A thematic analysis identified three barriers: young people’s lack of demand and motivation for conversation-oriented interventions, family-related concerns such as loyalty conflicts and parental approval, and organisational shortcomings, including rigid intervention formats and limited resources for flexible support. The findings show that social workers used or proposed threshold-lowering strategies aimed at making interventions more understandable, relationally safe, and practically accessible. The study contributes to social work research by showing that engagement in interventions addressing adversity is shaped by motivation, family relationships, socioeconomic conditions, institutional trust, and the organisational capacity of CWS to provide flexible and relational support.