The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine, which conditions underlie the re- ported increase in violence in Danish primary schools. In an attempt to define the concept of violence it’s found that the concept of violence is wide and abstract. With a critical psychological perspective the acquired empirical knowledge is gathered through semi-structured interviews with two public school teachers. Through these interviews as well as the theoretical framework five conditions are established: The school reform, Inclusion, Loss of authority, The awareness towards and the expecta- tion of violence and The importance of the home to individual characteristics. In working with each of the five conditions, it leads to the finding of different dilem- mas. These dilemmas exhibit some fundamental challenges in the Danish school, both within and besides the conditions. This master’s thesis finds that the conditions are influential on each other. To understand why some students, react with violence, it’s necessary to understand that violence is a form of communication, which is a conclusion of the master’s thesis as well.
This master’s thesis points to the importance of working with an understanding of violence, not as situated in the child, but as an illustration of some underlying problems both inside and outside of school, when trying to minimize violence in schools. Finally, this master’s thesis portrays that it’s not unequivocally possible to state that violence in primary schools is actually increasing, but merely that violence does exist and that the conditions can be used to demonstrate this.