This thesis analyses and discusses the responsibility of parents in matters relating to restrictive and corrective actions against their children. The thesis argues that the child’s right to a good upbringing under the Swedish Parental Code (1949:381) should be understood as a rights-based process towards legal adulthood. This right is also a fundamental part of the parents’ responsibility for supervision and care of the child and therefore essential to understand the legal norms and limits on restrictive and corrective actions.

Milder restrictive and corrective actions towards children are mainly handled within the criminal law system and there within an unwritten exception for criminal liability for such actions. This thesis highlights that the legal test for whether or not restrictive and corrective actions committed by a parent against a child fulfil the objective element of a crime should be based on norms from the family law system, namely the parents’ responsibility for supervision and care and the child’s right to a good upbringing as a rights-based process.