Understanding the capacity of child welfare (CW) organisations to deal with child abuse is complex, and dependent on the specific CW context. Sweden occupies a unique position in trying to balance high demands for CW and protection with a strong family support focus, which carries a risk of overlooking children who need protection. Drawing on an understanding of social service organisations as street-level bureaucracies, this article explores discretion in child abuse cases by examining conditions affecting discretion and strategies for investigating child abuse, including police reporting. Thematic analysis of interviews with Swedish supervising social workers showed that staff's conceptions of the CW system influenced the exercise of discretion, leading to different strategies for dealing with child abuse. This resulted in different practices and potentially unequal access to child protection and support, highlighting the wide margin of discretion. This article concludes that the interplay between knowledge and governance is central to equal child protection. This article contributes to the discussion of discretion in CW organisations by underlining the importance of being particularly vigilant about discretion when both children and parents are considered clients, as the child risks being lost as a subject with individual needs and rights. Understanding the capacity of child welfare (CW) organisations to deal with child abuse is complex. Sweden occupies a unique position in trying to balance high demands for CW and protection with a strong family support focus, which carries a risk of overlooking children in need of protection. This article explores the handling of child abuse cases by examining conditions affecting discretion and strategies for investigating child abuse, including police reporting. Analysis of interviews with Swedish supervising social workers showed that staff's conceptions of the CW system influenced the handling, leading to different strategies for dealing with child abuse. This resulted in different practices and potentially unequal access to child protection and support, underscoring the importance of being particularly vigilant about discretion when both children and parents are considered clients: the child risks being lost as a subject with individual needs and rights. This article concludes that the interplay between knowledge and governance is central to equal child protection.

Background: A significant number of children experience violence, frequently from parents or other caregivers. Yet, many of these children lack access to community support, largely due to the challenges they face in disclosing abuse. Even when children do disclose abuse, it does not necessarily lead to their receiving the help needed. Recognizing children as epistemic subjects is essential both for ensuring their access to adequate support and for advancing knowledge about child abuse.

Objective: This study aimed to explore children’s voices on violence in child welfare files to enhance our understanding of their experiences of violence.Participants and setting: The sample consisted of 120 children who provided abuse information in Swedish child welfare investigations into physical and sexual abuse.

Method: Data were collected from child welfare files and analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis.

Results: Six themes were identified—acts of violence, emotions, context, disclosure, agency, and abuse dynamics—all of which informed the overarching theme: Children’s voices highlight violence as a specific problem characterized by power and control dynamics that significantly impact their lives.

Conclusions: The collective findings indicate that mechanisms of violence extend beyond physical acts, emphasizing the need for Child Welfare Services (CWS) to recognize child abuse as a distinct issue characterized by dynamics of power and control. These dynamics significantly affect children’s health and their capacity to assert their own interests. Failure to address these aspects risks underestimating the severity of the violence and impeding the provision of adequate support.

Sverige har under lång tid varit ett föregångsland vad gäller att ta ställning mot olika former av våld mot barn och förebygga barns utsatthet. Vid slutet av 90-talet uppmärksammades en tydligökning av polisanmälda fall av våld mot barn i Sverige. Under samma tid utvecklades olika former av myndighetssamverkan i form av Barnahus på flera platser i landet för att bättre mötaupp barns behov i samband med polisanmält våld. Den aktuella rapporten fokuserar på implementeringen av modellen Efter barnförhöret (Elfström, Landberg & Olofsson, 2017) via det mobila teamet på Barnahus i Stockholms stad. Teamet startade efter att det konstaterats att merparten vårdnadshavare och barn i staden intefick kvalificerat stöd i anslutning till genomförda barnförhör vid Barnahus Stockholm. Rapporten är en delrapport i det FORTE- finansierade forskningsprogrammet Samordnade interventionssystem mot våld i nära relationer (SIVIN) vid Marie Cederschiöld högskola. Syftet med implementeringsstudien var att undersöka möjligheterna till att implementera en familjeorienterad krisinventionsmodell som Efter barnförhöret för att stödja barn och deras familjer efter ett polisförhör som rör våld i familjen. I projektet skulle fokus vara på genomförbarhet och användning av arbetsmodellen samt vilka organisatoriska och personella förutsättningar som främjar respektive hindrar implementeringen av arbetsmodellen. Befintligt dokumenterat material inhämtades i kombination med att intervjuer genomfördes under 2021-2022 med ledning och krisstödsteamets personal. Resultaten visade att arbetet i krisstödsteamet startat upp enligt plan och att runt fyrtio barn och familjer erbjöds stödet årligen under 2021-2022. I ett uppföljande samtal med personalen i oktober 2023 beskrevs en ökning av såväl inkomna remisser, genomförda infomöten som genomförda hembesök vilket vittnar om att verksamheten börjar att bli mer etablerad. I projektet framkom flera utmaningar som att få till ett jämt remissflöde, att kunna hantera situationer när det blir få respektive många barn och familjer som behöver stöd utifrån personalens arbetssituation. Vidare beskrev personalen behov av att få tid och resurser till utbildning och metodutveckling och ett behov av ett ökat stöd från ledningen. Krisstödsteamet kan konstaterats ha drabbats av stor personalomsättning parallellt med att ledningen bytts ut under projekttiden vilket försvårat arbetet med implementeringen. Detta i kombination med att verksamheten påverkades av COVID-utbrottet som försvårade möjligheten till fysiska möten inklusive att göra hembesök. 

Background: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits all forms of violence against children. Sweden was early in introducing a ban on disciplinary violence; however, difficulties have been noted in identifying children in need of protection and providing help for children exposed to violence.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the social services' police reporting and children's access to protection and support in cases of physical and sexual child abuse.

Methods: The sample consisted of 291 child welfare reports from three Swedish municipalities. Data were collected from child welfare reports, investigations, and child social records and analyzed using quantitative content analysis.

Results: A majority of the cases, including cases with a high indication for police reporting, were not reported to the police by the social services. Although the child in 60.1 % of cases provided information about violence, 70.7 % of all child welfare investigations were completed without support measures, and only 8.2 % led to protection or support linked to violence. Children's participation was limited, suggesting inadequate conditions for children's access to protection and support.

Conclusions: Children's right to protection against violence requires the recognition of children as active participants with access to safe participation. Failure to report suspected crimes against children risks minimizing acts of violence or making violence invisible. Difficulties in handling conflicts of interest between children and parents risk neither protection nor support being provided for the child.

Knowledge concerning the social services’ use of the Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act 1990:52 (CYPA) is relatively scarce, especially when it comes to the protection of adolescents victimized by abuse. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate and discuss different conceptualisations of abuse, adolescents’ agency regarding abuse, victimization and social intervention, and how abuse and adolescent victimization are responded to, primarily by the social services. This is done from a stance influenced by critical realism as well as victim- and child-centred responses. The dissertation consists of four papers and examines these themes in two samples of judgments and related documents concerning applications for care of adolescents aged 13-17 under the CYPA. The findings from the total study of all judgments in the selected year clearly confirm § 2 CYPA as a rare intervention to protect adolescents. In only 85 of Sweden's 290 municipalities was a CYPA application made, but a main finding is that such care to a large extent was used to protect adolescents from various forms of abuse. In the total study, the applications of § 2 CYPA concerned 196 adolescents, for 70 per cent of whom abuse was described, and where more girls (96) than boys (41) were being considered for care based on abuse. Of all the girls, 79 per cent were described as subjected to abuse and of the boys 55 per cent. Also in the smaller sample consisting of judgments for 37 girls in care under § 2 CYPA and §§ 2 and 3 CYPA, abuse was described for many. For several adolescents in both samples abuse was described as having been exerted to maintain standards of honour, shame and virginity, and/ or to enable a forced marriage. The initiative and agency of the adolescents themselves in both the disclosure of abuse as well as the decision on alternative care is one of the most striking findings in the thesis. The majority of the adolescents, 71 per cent, were categorized as having intentionally disclosed the abuse. The aftermath of the disclosure was for many of the adolescents described as intensely challenging. For the majority the abuse was denied during the investigation, not only by the alleged abusers but also by non-abusing parents and other relatives. The findings relating to the social services responses suggest that the initial response to a high degree could be understood as parent-oriented. For 33 per cent, the judgment also revealed that the abuse had been disclosed to authorities one or several times prior to the investigation leading to the application for care under the CYPA. That the abuse in these cases had been known to the social services for on average 5 years can from a child-centred position be seen as a major failure regarding the system’s ability to reach children and stop abuse. A central conclusion is that the various forms of abuse described seem more connected to domination, fear, power and control than to conflict; to some extent mirroring the kind of systematic oppression described for victimized adults seeking the protection of NGOs and public authorities. The findings imply that interventions under the CYPA may enable more child-centred, safe and stable protection of children subjected to this kind of abuse. Given the findings in the present thesis it is argued that it may be important to differentiate the concept of abuse as well as to acknowledge the agency of children in both research and in practice.

This paper addresses child abuse and the Social Services protection andbuilds upon a study of verdicts concerning § 2 Care of Young PersonsAct (CYPA). The aim was to explore the extent of, and whatcharacterised, the violence the children were being subjected to. Acentral finding was that of all the applications of § 2 CYPA during oneyear concerning 196 children, 13–18 years, 70% concerned childrenreported as subjected to violence. The violence was in most casesdescribed as severe and systematically exerted over many years withintimidating tactics of power and control. More girls than boys were inquestion for care because of violence. Girls were also to a greater extentreported as having been subjected to sexual abuse or coercive controlof their sexuality in relation to standards regarding honour and virginity.In an international perspective the findings can be said to confirm theneed to analyse such factors as gender, power and control whenresearch and interventions concerns children abused by their parents. Ina Swedish context the findings can be said to suggest that the § 2 CYPAis a crucial intervention to protect children from violence.

Den här artikeln synliggör föräldrar och andra närståendes våld och socialtjänstens skydd av barn. Artikeln bygger på en studie av domar som rör ansökningar om vård enligt 2 § lag (1990:52) med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga. Syftet var att undersöka omfång av våldsutsatthet och vad som karaktäriserade våldet. Ett centralt resultat var att av alla ansökningar om vård enligt 2 § LVU under ett år som rörde 196 barn, 13–18 år, beskrevs 70 procent som utsatta för våld. Våldet var i majoriteten av ärendena beskrivet som grovt och systematiskt med hög grad av hot, makt och kontroll och utövat under lång tid. Fler flickor än pojkar var aktuella för skydd på grund av våldsutsatthet. Flickor beskrevs också i högre grad som utsatta för sexuella övergrepp och tvång och kontroll kopplat till sexualitet som en följd av normer kring heder och oskuld. I ett internationellt perspektiv kan resultaten bekräfta vikten av att synliggöra faktorer som kön, makt och kontroll också i nom forskning och insatser som rör barn som utsätts för våld av föräldrar. I ett svenskt perspektiv kan resultaten visa på att 2 § LVU är en viktig insats för att skydda barn från våld.

This paper presents findings from a study of judgements concerning 137 children (13–18 years) where protection by the Swedish Social Services was applied for. The paper explores the disclosure of physical, sexual and emotional child abuse including experiences of domestic violence and the process following a disclosure. A central finding is that the majority of children (71%) could be described as having intentionally disclosed the abuse. The findings also suggest that many of the children had come a long way in an emotional and cognitive process before the decision to disclose, and that disclosure was often made in conjunction with a decision to leave the alleged abusers. These findings support previous research suggesting children's intentional disclosure as an important predictor of decisions regarding alternative care. Another finding is that the process following the disclosure was described by the children as intensely challenging with active pressure and threats from relatives and feelings of fear, guilt and ambivalence. These findings have implications for both practice and research on how the safeguarding system can help children in the process of disclosure and protect those who do disclose.