Soňa Lovašová - Katarína Šiňanská - Magdaléna Halachová  - Vladimír Lichner (eds.)

The central theme of the conference is violence in social work. Violence in social work appears in various forms, whether it involves working with clients who are victims of different types of violence or dealing with aggressive clients where the social worker themselves becomes the victim. Violence in society is rapidly increasing, and social work is a science that must necessarily adapt to society; this is its essence. Therefore, managing aggressive situations in any form is an important part of a social worker's personal skill set.

Unfortunately, protecting social workers from violence will gradually become a necessity, and in the future, we may not avoid training in self-defense and reducing aggression as part of professional preparation or lifelong education.

The aim of this collection is to present the issue of violence in social work from various perspectives to both the professional and lay public. We hope that this serious problem will receive increasing attention and that the individual contributions will help readers understand the extent of the problem of violence in social work.

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Magdaléna Halachová - Vladimír Lichner - Katarína Šiňanská (eds.)

Proceedings of Contributions from the Scientific Conference Held on April 25, 2013, in Košice

The proceedings of contributions from the scientific conference were created as part of the national round of the Student Scientific and Professional Activities event in the field of study 3.1.14 Social Work, which took place on April 25, 2013, in Košice.

The central theme of the proceedings focuses on addressing various problem areas within social work as both an academic discipline and a practical activity. These contributions were prepared by students and young researchers under the guidance of experienced professionals. The topics covered in the proceedings include issues such as social services, field social work, school social work, and similar areas. Additionally, they highlight the dangers of socio-pathological phenomena such as truancy, drug addiction, poverty, bullying, and more.

The presented results clearly demonstrate the importance of social work and other helping professions in working with specific client groups.

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Vladimír Lichner - Dušan Šlosár

The scientific monograph focuses on the issue of adolescent risk behaviors on the internet in the form of its problematic use in the context of valid theories and practices of a social work. Text of the monograph is divided into four parts.

The first part focuses on the multidisciplinary definition of a risk behavior on the internet. It offers an up-to-date literary overview of the issue through the latest, especially foreign, theoretical knowledge.

The second part focuses on the problematic use of the internet in contexts of valid origins of the social work. The third part focuses on the presentation of the most important psychosocial factors correlating with the problematic internet use in the adolescent´s group. The theoretical knowledge is supplemented by the authors research into the present factors.

The final part is application-oriented and focuses on the possibilities that the social work offers at the praxis level to prevent and solve the presented problems.

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Dušan Šlosár - Vladimír Lichner

This university textbook aims to provide readers with knowledge of the philosophical foundations, meaning, and purpose of mediation, based on research and analysis of mediators' activities. In countries where mediation services operate, their staff often include graduates of social work departments.

An individual approach to both the perpetrator and victim of a criminal offense requires knowledge and skills from social work, psychology, sociology, communication, and related fields tied to social work. The principles of social work apply not only in social policy and social care but also in justice. A mediator’s mission is to facilitate alternative resolutions to unlawful acts while preserving the purpose of legal proceedings as defined by valid legal norms. They fulfill this mission through specific methods of individual social work applied in the justice sector. The mediator’s focus extends beyond the current conflict to uncover related issues, activate parties to resolve disputes, and prevent new conflicts.

Special attention is devoted to the philosophical foundations of mediation in Slovakia. We provide an overview of mediators’ core activities and mediation types used to uphold justice in Slovakia. We analyze mediation goals, the roles of parties involved, and procedural steps. In applying mediation, we explore its potential and implementation in both legal and social work contexts.

As indicated, mediation cannot be understood solely as a specialized activity in criminal justice, as it has broader applications in non-judicial dispute resolution, such as family or community work, which are often overlooked by the public. The mediator’s approach to diverse target groups is grounded in theoretical frameworks. From this foundation, we derive activities expected of mediators in the future. Expanded activities arise from concrete situations encountered during mediation.

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Vladimír Lichner - Dušan Šlosár et al.

It is very difficult to refer to any act of extremism or action having extremist characteristics, or to exclude it unambiguously. The boundary between extremism and accepted, conformal behavior is very broad and vaguely worded. Each company tends to set certain criteria to determine what can be considered as unwanted, violent, radical or extreme, or what signs of such a manifestation do not have. Therefore, when comparing the individual countries of the European Union in this area, we come across a different definition of what is or is not considered to be radical or extremist. In essence, the level of tolerance to some of the manifestations and the setting of indicators for the evaluation of the proceedings as extremist.

The presented monograph aims to present the basic social contexts of extremism and radicalization in the form of their philosophical and theoretical backgrounds, influencing the factors, the basic directions. In the author's work, the authors focus on the target group of adolescents, which they consider to be one of the most endangered groups in society in terms of development of the radicalization process. At the conclusion of the monograph is also offered the criminal level of these phenomena, which is not unavoidable in terms of complex analysis.

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Vladimír Lichner - Dušan Šlosár

Issues of punishment are directly linked to a state’s criminal policy, which is an inseparable part of its social policy. Historically, the state has held a unique dominant position in the realm of punishment. Once the conditions for imposing a penalty are met, the state fulfills its obligation by sentencing through independent courts. However, it does not address questions of satisfaction, which belong to the victim. The victim may be a specific physical person or legal entity that suffered harm due to the criminal act. This harm simultaneously affects civil society as a whole. The state prioritizes its duty to punish and decide on the matter over compensating the harmed individual or civil society.

By mediation in criminal cases, we mean extrajudicial facilitation of resolving disputes between the offender and the harmed party, with the assistance and personal participation of a mediator. The mediator, as an independent and impartial person, helps parties identify their interests and supports them in finding shared, practical, and realistic solutions to the points causing their conflict. Probation refers to monitoring, supervising the accused, defendant, or convicted individual, as well as providing individual assistance to the offender and encouraging them to lead a lawful life. This reduces the risk of recidivism, or repeated criminal behavior.

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Vladimír Lichner

The presented university textbook presents a basic overview of statistical theory and practice intended for students of social work, including examples of their use in specific studies. This text deals with the first part of statistical practice, namely descriptive analysis, which we perceive as a basic condition for the processing of any empirical research and is also important in grasping typical statistical principles and concepts.

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Františka Petriková - Vladimír Lichner - Eva Žiaková

The proposed methodological guide focuses on a self-care questionnaire for the target group of adolescents. The creation of this methodology was prompted by its absence in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. The methodological guide consists of both theoretical and empirical parts.

In the theoretical part, the authors present theoretical foundations for the proposed methodology—self-care among adolescents—and also provide theoretical definitions of components of self-care in this target group. The second, empirical part of the methodological guide is dedicated to validation methods used to verify the questionnaire. It also presents results examining differences or correlations in the presented issues.

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Vladimír Lichner, Tomáš Šeďo

Peer-Reviewed Collection of Contributions from a Scientific Conference with International Participation Held on November 25, 2022 in Košice

"The presented peer-reviewed collection of contributions titled "Present and Future of Social Work in the Reflection of Social Changes" is the output of a scientific conference with international participation, marking the 10th anniversary of the Košické dni sociálnej práce, held on November 25, 2022. The conference was dedicated to the vision of social work, its methods, and techniques in the context of societal changes. With the changing times come new challenges to which social work must be prepared to respond. The central focus of the collection is the search for answers to pre-defined questions: "Is the current social work system adequately configured for current societal problems? Can social work promptly respond to new and unknown challenges? Are the known methods of social work effective in dealing with contemporary negative phenomena? Do we need additional methods? If so, what are they?" Individual contributions touch on theoretical concepts in the search for answers, but they also include empirically based contributions that reflect research results from various areas of society and problematic situations, with a view to providing recommendations for both the theory and practice of social work.

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Vladimír Lichner

The scientific monograph focuses on the analysis of radical and extremist groups, movements, sects and cults and their activities in the Slovak Republic.

It provides a theoretical insight into the issues of specific organizations and movements that have been characterized in the past, or are currently characterized by belonging to ideologies that we might call anti-social.

It does not focus unilaterally on one type of violent extremism, but focuses on the issue of both right-wing and left-wing religious groups. In the final part it offers a brief suggestion of prevention procedures, which could significantly influence the increase of extremist manifestations especially in young people.

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