This research is concerned with how social workers in a South East England Local
Authority feel when working with families where there is an identified risk of sexual
abuse by adult males. The research question is “What do Social Workers experience
when working with families where sexual abuse is the primary factor?”

This research has explored:

How social workers feel about this area of practice, given the potential impact on their
professional and personal life when working with families where sexual abuse may be
present.

How they deal with the emotions produced by their social work practice.

All of the social workers taking part in this study work in what is best described as
‘front line practice’. That is, they have been working with families as they first present
or once initial assessments of risk have taken place. The social workers are not situated
in teams where there is long-term therapeutic work. All describe themselves as facing
high caseloads and with limited time to spend with service users.

A phenomenological approach was utilised, with semi-structured interviews as the
method of data collection. This was effective in bringing to the fore the experiences and
insights of individual social workers from their perspectives, and thus shone a light on
the social workers’ experience of working in practice with families where sexual abuse
is present. The social workers in the study did not often carry out risk assessment work
on the abusing males, but they did come into contact with them at the family assessment
stage of the process. They were often tasked with making safety plans for the children,
and this necessitated contact with the adults in the family.

Findings generated a number of themes, including that of ‘disgust’. The social workers
described what was, at times, a visceral feeling of disgust towards the male sex abusers,
and their actions against children. This theme developed to support further
understanding of theoretical constructs such as ‘dirty workers’ and ‘dirty work’,
constructs developed by Hughes in 1956. The social workers described feeling that they
were ‘tainted’ by moral contamination when coming into contact with offenders, and
this ‘contamination’ tainted (in a moral sense) their extended relationships.

Study findings suggest that social workers are strongly affected by their face-to-face
work with male child sexual abuse perpetrators. The work has an emotional impact and
triggers moral judgements on the part of the social workers, which may have the effect
of producing biased and poorly analysed outcomes for children. This research is likely
to have significant professional practice implications for social workers who work with
families where sexual abuse is a feature. The importance of supervision and peer
support is highlighted, and the study recommends changes to how supervision and
support are currently offered.