The role of social researcher in the courts of personal status and family violence

Abstract

The role of social counselors is really crucial for society whenever the laws are not able to handle the social problems, especially if the problems are related to the family and private life. This study seeks to know how social counselors play their professional roles in the courts. The research utilized Functional Theory by Otto Rank and techniques of qualitative research. The analysis presented in this study is based on observation and semi-structured interview with a Expert sample, which consists of (10) lawyers in the personal status court/Erbil and (15) cases from the domestic violence court-Erbil. The role of the social counselors in both courts are evaluated from the participant’s perspective. Taking the differences of both samples into consideration, the researcher utilized objective analysis techniques to conduct a qualitative analysis for the gathered data, which include answers of (8) open-ended questions for both samples. The findings of this research showed that the social counselors in the courts generally play a very weak and ineffective roles. Regardless of the legal validity of their reports, they do not have that power to make decisions in the courts. Subjective and objective obstacles are reasons behind this situation. Peace Committee has not met the requirements and expectations of some of the cases. However, its efforts and advices partially satisfied the rest of the sample.