Magnus Malthe Roskjær Biilmann

• Presentation
• Research outputs

My research focuses on how professionals working with children, directly or indirectly, handle suspicions of child sexual abuse (CSA).

To ‘handle’ in this context does not concern (behavioural) acts, e.g. ‘how to’ or ‘how not to’ react appropriately in a normative sense or how institutional guidelines and the law is complied with. Still, it is in the interest of my research how professionals think about these aspects that concern acting on a suspicion. The enquiry concerns ‘handling’ on a psychological level. 

I investigate how the different professionals (individuals) differ in their way of handling a suspicion of CSA via qualitative research strategies (i.e. through interviewing) and the aim is to include a comparative element to shed light on the degree to which various professions may tend to handle a suspicion of CSA in same and different ways. It is a hypothesis that there will be differences; first of all, because of the fact that there are individual differences but also because of the divergent professional roles they perform in relation to children and due to particular institutional logics. The comparative element is intended to show different qualitative dynamics across individuals and professions but should likewise be seen in close connection with an approach that is ‘exemplary’ in nature. This broadly means serving as an example of ‘something’, an ‘instance’ or an ‘illustration’ of a typical phenomenon. What the study should exemplify, besides the somewhat narrow phenomenon of suspicion of CSA among professionals, is the theme of how people handle or relate to sexuality in general.

The conceptual foundation of this project is situated within psychoanalysis. The work of two theoreticians, Jean Laplanche and Jacques Lacan, will be given prominence since their respective theories offer ideal conceptual tools for research in ‘CSA’ and ‘suspicion’. I work with concepts such as sexual trauma, the unconscious subject, symptoms and their expressions, seduction, otherness, identification and knowledge.