The purpose of this study was to examine femicide cases in Iceland, which is a small Nordic welfare society. Cases of femicide were explored during a 30-year time period from 1986-2015. Femicide was defined as the murder of a woman by a partner, former partner or related to passion. Verdicts and news of the incidents were analysed. Verdicts were found using the search machine Fons Juries, run by a private legal company, which collected all verdicts from the Supreme Court from 1920, and all verdicts from the district courts existing in electric form. News that included murders of women was collected from websites of the main newspapers in Iceland. Eleven women were killed during this time period according to the definition used in this study. Most of the incidents happened in the home of the perpetrator, victim or both. Nearly all of them took place during the night or in the evening during weekends, with more incidents occurring during cold and dark months than brighter and warmer months. All of them took place in the capital city or in that area. Strangulation was the most common murder method, followed by stabbing the woman with a knife. Only one woman was shot, and that perpetrator was the only one who killed himself afterward. The mean age of the perpetrators was 29. Most of them had a low level of education or their education was unknown, and had a low paying job. Two-thirds of them were under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs when the incident happened and the majority had a psychiatric problem, mainly personality disorders or symptoms of such disorders, such as antisocial personality disorder. Even though it is rare, femicide incidents do exist in a small Nordic welfare society such as Iceland, despite an extensive welfare policy and gender equality.

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In this study, all cases of femicide in Iceland over a thirty-year period were explored. A total of sixteen women and girls were killed during the years 1986-2015. Femicide was defined in this study as the murder of a woman by a partner, former partner, or because of passion. According to this definition, eleven femicide cases occurred during this time period. The data analyzed were court verdicts and news reports of the incidents. Qualitative methods were used for analysis. Interestingly, there was a different dynamic related to femicide cases, which included 1) sex femicide, 2) former partners and 3) current partners. Alcohol consumption and the willingness of the victim to end sex appear to be a dangerous mixture, judging from the results of the sexually-related femicide cases. Alcohol consumption was a factor in all current partner femicide cases in addition to low SES status; empathy was lacking, and patriarchal views were prominent in some of them. In former partner femicide cases, jealousy and possessiveness were major themes, but not alcohol consumption. It is important to study such dynamics and contextual factors in greater detail in larger studies.

Yfirfaersla á málaflokki fatlaðs fólks frá ríki til sveitarfélaga: Með sérstakri áherslu á staersta sveitarfélagið, ReykjavíkFreydís Jóna Freysteinsdóttir, dósent við Félagsráðgjafardeild Háskóla Íslands Gylfi Jónsson, félagsráðgjafi hjá Barnavernd Reykjavíkur ÚtdrátturMarkmið rannsóknarinnar var að skoða hvernig yfirfaersla á málaflokki fatlaðs fólks frá ríki til sveitarfélaga hefði gengið fyrir sig. Heildarferli yfirfaerslunnar var skoðað og síðan var eitt sveitarfélag, Reykjavíkurborg, valið og skoðað nánar með tilliti til stefnu og framkvaemdar á þjónustunni við fatlað fólk. Um var að raeða eigindlega rannsókn sem fór fram haustið 2012. Tekin voru átta viðtöl við fagaðila sem höfðu komið beint að vinnu við yfirfaersluna eða unnið við málaflokkinn fyrir og eftir yfirfaerslu. Tekið var viðtal við starfsmenn hjá velferðarráðuneytinu og hjá Sambandi íslenskra sveitarfélaga. Þjónustumiðstöðvar Reykjavíkurborgar eru sex talsins, eitt viðtal var tekið á hverri þjónustumiðstöð og leitast var við að fá viðmaelanda sem var hvað mest inni í málaflokknum. Helstu niðurstöður voru þaer að viðmaelendur töldu almennt séð rétt að ráðist skyldi hafa verið í yfirfaersluna. Þeir töldu að þjónusta í naersamfélaginu vaeri heppilegri kostur og nú þyrfti þjónustuþeginn aðeins að fara á einn stað til þess að saekja sér þjónustu, jafnvel þó að ekki hefðu orðið eins miklar framfarir í þjónustunni og búist hefði verið við. Þeir töldu þó að töluvert fjármagn vantaði í málaflokkinn til að tryggja viðeigandi þjónustu og að yfirfaerslan hefði ekki verið naegilega vel undirbúin. Viðmaelendur voru á því að þverfagleg vinna gengi vel í málaflokknum.

The purpose of this study was to find out how the position is regarding various factors related to social workers in Iceland following the pandemic. A questionnaire was send to all social workers registered in the social worker association in Iceland. The response rate was 46%. The results showed that most of them worked in the social services or 60%, and most of them used empowerment and solution-focused approach as their theoretical approach. Most of the social workers were satisfied with the management, social environment, content of their work, work condition, and salaries. Nearly 90% of the social workers thought that the stress was high, and nearly 80% of them were experiencing one or more stress symptoms or six on the average. The most common stress symptoms were lack of energy, worries, and sleep difficulties. Child protection workers were experiencing the highest number of stress symptoms. One fifth of social workers had experienced burnout in the past. The higher the employment ratio, the more likely a social worker was to have experienced burnout. Nearly a third of the participants thought that they would change jobs in the near future.

It is important to identify families who are at risk of repeatedly maltreating their children early in the process in order to develop specific ways to help these families stop maltreating their children or to work on termination of parental rights. Thus, identifying factors that contribute to repeated child maltreatment is essential. The focus of this study was to investigate risk factors for repeated maltreatment, specifically neglect, of children in Iceland.

In this study, the experiences of perpetrators of violence in intimate relationships in Iceland that took part in this program; "Peace at home" were explored. Also the experiences of survivors were examined, who had a spouse that took part in that treatment program. A qualitative method was used, interviews were taken with six perpetrators and six survivors. All of the participants were white Icelandic people, none of them had a different ethnic background. The interviews were transcribed and analysed. As a result of their participation in the treatment program, all the perpetrators experienced improvement in quality of life, in their relationships with their spouses and in their general well-being. The survivors experienced the time their spouse was in therapy as positive overall and that it made a difference in their own lives. In all cases the physical violence stopped. However, the emotional abuse did not cease in all cases or increased again. Thus, it seems that perpetrators might need more prolonged treatment or different emphasis in treatment, in order to work on patriarchal mentality and stress-provoking situations.Keywords perpetrators and victims, intimate partner violence, family violence, emotional violence, physical violence, batterer programs, semi-structured interviews, thematic analysis