• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.391-415
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• 2010

Recently, there were some welfare embezzlement cases of public social workers. The purpose of this study is to explore public perceptions of public social workers by analysing the comments named "datgeul" in the internet media discussion rooms("toronbang") about welfare embezzlement cases of public social workers. The results show that the main discourse about public social workers to perform a dual role as the public servants and social workers on the front line of public social welfare is that they are the victims of both a public official system and welfare administration system. In addition, social workers in public sphere are still recognized as service personnels with sacrifice and commitment rather than as professionals. Finally, the implications of this study were discussed to improve public perceptions of social welfare professionals.