By Mathias Pedersen, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Photo: The Danish Crime Prevention Council

Tea Torbenfeldt Bengtsson comes to the professorship after serving as Professor MSO at VIVE – The Danish Center for Social Science Research, where she will continue to hold a 20 percent position. For the past two years, she has also been affiliated with AAU as a guest professor based in Copenhagen.

Bengtsson is an established sociologist with 15 years of research experience within social work, particularly focusing on children and young people in vulnerable positions. She has extensive experience as a research leader, educator and communicator, and she will continue to teach both in the Master’s programme in Social Work and in AAU’s Master in Vulnerable Children and Youth.

Research on vulnerable young people’s encounters with state institutions

Throughout her career, Bengtsson has been dedicated to understanding how children and young people experience and navigate their interactions with institutions of the welfare state. Her work is characterised by the development and application of qualitative methods that make it possible to access perspectives from informants who are often difficult to reach — including young people in care placements and their parents.

In her current research project funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, “System Child” (2025–2029), she and her colleagues investigate how young people placed in secure institutions experience their encounters with authorities such as psychiatry, the courts and social services. The project combines innovative quantitative approaches, such as video diaries, with traditional qualitative methods including interviews, focus groups and ethnographic fieldwork.

Most recently, Bengtsson conducted fieldwork within the court system as part of the project “What is violence. Young offender’s encounter with criminal court”, where she followed young people under 18 as they navigated the legal process. Her research is theoretically grounded in symbolic interactionism, practice theory and emotional theories, and she has published widely within emotion sociology, childhood sociology, criminology, digitalisation and risk.

Improving conditions for vulnerable children and families

At the heart of Tea Torbenfeldt Bengtsson’s research lies a commitment to improving societal support for children, young people and families in vulnerable situations. Her work contributes important knowledge that can inform practice, policy development and our broader understanding of how the welfare system can best support those who need it most.