The (Dys)Functionality of Girls’ and Young Women’s Violence

Abstract

This article explores how professionals talk about girls’ and young women’s use of violence; more specifically, how violence is constructed and conceptualized and its effects on social work practice. The data analyzed consist of focus group sessions with 11 professionals within social and youth work. The findings revealed that violence is conceptualized through interpretative repertoires as social functionality, psychological functionality, or dysfunctionality, which affect the professionals’ conceptualizations of violence and social work practice. Accordingly, a multifaceted understanding of violence is needed, otherwise girls’ and young women’s violent acts risk being diminished and made into an individual problem to solved.