The thesis concerns two pathways for legal intervention in cases of suspected child abuse at the hands of parents. One pathway is based on social law, where society's utmost tool is child protective custody. The other pathway is criminal law, where the abuse is investigated and enforced as a criminal offence. Sometimes only one of these pathways becomes relevant, sometimes both. The purpose of the thesis is to examine and analyse the regulatory framework and its practical application, and to highlight what the two pathways of intervention can accomplish in relation to the child victim's rights and interests. In the case of child abuse, the (legal) relationship between parents and children - and between children, parents and society - is brought to a head. The study demonstrates that many complex legal issues arise when the person subjecting the child to violence and abuse is the same person who under family law answers for the child's protection, care and representation. It is inter alia noted that the concept "best interests of the child" is interpreted somewhat freely, which can risk overriding the legal rights of the child victim. It is concluded that, in order to secure the child victim's legal protection, the regulation needs many small enhancements, each tailored to the problem conditions.

Child sexual assault is a problem of epidemic proportions in the United States with some research suggesting up to one fifth of our nations children being victimized before reaching adulthood. Research has suggested females could be responsible for up to 20% of child sexual abuse cases, and at the same time only represent only 1% of sexual offenders incarcerated the US. This creates a situation where a large group of relatively under-researched offenders are evading detection. Numerous calls for further research have been made, but relatively few studies have had the ability to shed significant light on this phenomenon on a national level. This project utilizes a dataset of virtually every reported child protective services case in the United States for the fiscal year 2010 in order to investigate the dynamics of perpetrator gender on child sexual offending in substantiated cases. Offense characteristics, as well as case level components, were assessed to investigate not only the differences in offending behavior but also the ways gender affects how offenders enter and exit our child protective systems and the services they receive while there. Extensive differences were uncovered as related to perpetrator gender. Models were informed by the female sexual offending literature. Practice and policy implications are discussed.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine approaches to social work dealing with children at risk and their families. Of particular interest to this examination are the processes of social work practice, support of vulnerable children, family's effect upon child's endangered situation as well as the role of family in the process of social work practice with the child. Further subjects of investigation are specific methods and instruments of social work practice with children in need, competence and role of social workers along with legal standards in this field of social work. The first part of the work describes general and theoretical structure of social work practice with socially endangered children. Following part consists of social work methods applied in Mezipatro Children's Centre. The research part includes an analysis of semi- structured interviews conducted with social workers from Mezipatro Children's Centre and is focused on efficiency and risks of social work tools used in Mezipatro Children's Centre.

This study aims to examine social service worker’s perception of factors that complicate and challenge their freedom of action in childcare investigation where children have witnessed violence between parents, and how they manage this in their assessments. Data was collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews with eight social workers from three social offices in Stockholm. The transcriptions from the interviews were analysed via thematic analysis. The results were analysed by using a social theoretical approach. Getting access to children’s perception of the experienced violence is shown in the study as achallenge for the social workers. The conclusions of the study show that high workload, co- operation within different units in the organisation and lack of authority for decision-making are the main factors that complicates the social workers freedom of action in their work. Consequences of these factors lead to less time for the social workers to meet the children and get their voice heard during the investigation work. The study also concludes that professional experience and support from colleagues enable the social workers to managetheir freedom of action during childcare investigations.

Gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children are pervasive and destructive globally, but the exacerbation of violence in emergency contexts makes addressing them an urgent priority in humanitarian action. However, despite recognition of overlapping risks and intervention opportunities, child protection programming and GBV programming have hitherto followed discrete trajectories, resulting in adolescent (aged between 10 and 19 years) girls falling between the domains, despite their heightened vulnerability to GBV. This research explores how humanitarian protection interventions address GBV against displaced adolescent girls in Jordan. Data is collected using detailed, semi-structured interviews with four specialist humanitarian practitioners from leading organisations in child protection and GBV programming within the refugee response in Jordan. Qualitative, grounded coding and analysis is conducted on the transcribed data to identify key themes and patterns. The findings report child marriage, domestic violence and sexual violence as the most prevalent forms of GBV against adolescents. The social ecology of the girls is explored and salient risk factors at each level are identified, including lack of awareness, cultural norms and stigma, and absence of data information to direct programming. Corresponding protection interventions, including case-management, capacity-building of service providers and awareness-raising are identified, and the limited extent to which they empower adolescent girls is debated. Finally, the nexus between child protection and GBV programming is discussed, and key challenges, including coordination between child protection and GBV policies, campaigns, services and actors, decreasing funding and nationalisation of services, an absence of meaningful participation of adolescent girls in programming, and the organisations’ issue-focused approach, are identified and explored in the context of empowerment of adolescent girls. The research concludes that addressing GBV by meaningful participation of adolescents, adopting rights-based approaches, and proactive coordination of protection actors, is essential for the empowerment of adolescent girls to be agents of their own protection.

The aim of this study was to investigate how organizational and child-related factors, as well as the general approach, affect the child's participation and the extent to which children are involved in the child protection agency child care investigations. Based on the following questions, the study investigated to which extent, and in which way, children are involved in investigations: 1. To what extent and in what way are children involved in the Swedish child protection agency? 2. How are children's involvement affected of child-related factors? 3. How are children's involvement affected of organizational factors? The result has been analyzed based on Michael Lipsky's Street-level-bureaucracy (2010), in addition, Harry Shier`s (2001) participation ladder has also been used. The result showed that most of social workers considered that the factors of time, workload, competence development and staff density affects children's participation. Drawing on the answers from the study, we conclude that there is generally a high level of participation within the Swedish child protection agency. Children hold a significant place in social welfare investigation cases, although social workers could involve them to a greater extent in the decision making process.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:27:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 carla.pdf: 989808 bytes, checksum: f66fec6e9cc0c95cfcef1bb4544b18af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-31 / Starting from the viewpoint that the demand served by the Guardian Council is woven complexity, the present study deals with the insertion of crew by the Guardian Council as a possibility to enhance the protection of the rights of children and adolescents without harming the democratic nature of that organ. For it was explored the reality of two Guardianship Councils with different scenarios in order to understand how the idea fosters in each space. As an aid in this passage, the paradigm of complexity Edgar Morin serving complementary interactions of various orders of the realities was used. From the findings of the research it was found that the problems of families served by the agency require counselor preparation function as specific knowledge and surroundings of advocacy in vogue. In this sense the counselor training, investment in the infrastructure of the councils, the election process enhancement and the priority in public investment are important aspects to be considered when thinking in the improvement of protection. Inserting a crew showed aggregate this context , the moment that can help with specific formal knowledge in cases that require it , as well as work on the issue of qualification of safety advisers for the purpose of achieving greater effectiveness in action / Partindo da ótica de que a demanda atendida pelo Conselho Tutelar é tecida de complexidade, o presente estudo trata sobre a inserção de equipe técnica junto ao Conselho Tutelar como possibilidade de aprimorar a proteção dos direitos da criança e do adolescente sem trazer prejuízo à natureza democrática do referido órgão. Para isso foi explorada a realidade de dois Conselhos Tutelares com cenários distintos, a fim de perceber como a ideia fomenta em cada espaço. Como auxilio nessa travessia, foi utilizado o paradigma da complexidade de Edgar Morin que atende as interações complementares de diversas ordens sobre as realidades. A partir dos achados da pesquisa constatou-se que as problemáticas das famílias atendidas pelo Conselho Tutelar demandam do conselheiro preparo enquanto conhecimentos específicos a função e os entornos da defesa dos direitos em voga. Neste sentido a capacitação dos conselheiros, investimento na infraestrutura dos conselhos, aprimoramento do processo eletivo e a prioridade no investimento público são aspectos importantes a ser considerados quando pensa-se no aprimoramento da proteção. A inserção de uma equipe técnica demonstrou agregar neste contexto, no instante que pode auxiliar com o conhecimento formal especifico nos casos que o exijam, assim como trabalhar a questão da qualificação dos conselheiros com o fim de alcançar a maior efetividade da ação

A travers une enquête menée dans quatre Maisons d’Enfants à Caractère Social du département du Rhône, cette thèse interroge les rôles des déplacements et de la mobilité des adolescents en contexte de placement. Intégré au double dispositif de l’Aide Sociale à l’Enfance et de la Protection Judiciaire de la Jeunesse, le placement en établissement correspond à la prise en charge, en dehors de son domicile familial, d’un mineur pour une durée donnée. Tant dans ses objectifs que dans ses modalités de mise en œuvre, cette action sociale possède une dimension spatiale forte. Elle est en effet fondée sur l’articulation entre distance et proximité aux espaces familiers d’un côté, et discontinuité et continuité entre l’intérieur et l’extérieur de l’établissement de l’autre. Dans ce contexte, les déplacements des adolescents et leur mobilité jouent des rôles à trois niveaux. Pour les adolescents, pour qui le foyer correspond à un espace de résidence, se déplacer permet d’articuler des espaces d’attachements multiples. La mobilité a également un rôle d’ajustement entre les différents individus présents au sein de l’établissement, qui intervient dans l’usage qu’en font les éducateurs, pour qui le foyer est un espace de travail. Enfin, qu’elle soit autonome ou contrainte, la mobilité, au niveau institutionnel, permet la régulation entre différents systèmes de normes mais n’apparaît pas comme une valeur en soi. / This thesis questions the role of mobility and how teenagers placed in institutional foster care move around, through a research conducted in four social care facilities (Maisons d’Enfants à Caractère Social). Within the French child protection system (Aide Sociale à l’Enfance and Protection Judiciaire de la Jeunesse), this form of placement means that a minor is taken care of outside of her/his family home during a given period of time. This type of social care presents a significant spatial dimension, both in its objectives and ways of implementation. It is indeed based on two principles: it seeks to manage both distance and proximity to familiar spaces on the one hand, and the discontinuity and continuity between the inside and the outside of the facility on the other hand. Within this context, how teenagers move around and their mobility play a three-layered role. First, for the teenagers themselves: the foster care facility is their space of residence, and moving around makes it possible for them to deal with multiple spaces of belonging. Second, for the social workers: the facility is their working space, and they use mobility as a means to both handle relationships between themselves and the teenagers, and adjust the number of teenagers they work with based on group dynamics and other parameters. Third, at an institutional level: whether it is chosen or coerced, mobility allows the regulation between different norm systems but is not perceived as being valuable in and of itself.

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Syftet med denna kvantitativa studie är att undersöka huruvida det finns skillnader i andelen insatser inom barnavården mellan de svenska kommunerna. Studiens fokus ligger på att analysera kommunernas strukturella förhållanden i förhållande till vilka åtgärder de vidtar i barnavårdsärenden. De empiriska uppgifterna för studien är främst sekundärdata som samlats in från Statistiska centralbyrån och från Socialstyrelsen. Frågeställningarna för studien är ”Skiljer sig kommunerna åt i andelen barnavårdsinsatser och i sådana fall hur?” och "Om det skiljer sig åt mellan kommunerna, har kommunens strukturella förutsättningar en inverkan på andelen barnavårdsinsatser och i sådana fall på vilket sätt?”. Studiens inhämtade data visar att det finns skillnader i andelen insatser i barnavården mellan kommunerna. Vidare visar analyser av data att skillnaderna i andelen insatser är korrelerade, både negativt och positivt till kommunernas strukturella förhållanden. Resultaten visar också att de olika variabelgrupperna av strukturella förhållanden har olika förklaringar till variationen i de åtgärder som vidtagits. Demografi är den enskilt största förklaringen medan ekonomin visar sig vara den minsta mellan grupperna. Den största effekten som kommer av en variabel är kommunens invånares utbildningsnivå. Vidare visar studien på skillnaderna mellan de svenska kommunerna och belyser ojämlikheterna i det svenska välfärdssystemet. Detta trots sina många förordningar för att motverka detta och att vara allmänt känt för att vara i framkant av den universalistiska synpunkten. / The aim of this quantitative study is to examine whether there are differences in the quantity of actions taken in child protections services between the swedish municipalities. Moreover the focus of the study is to analyze the municipalities structural conditions in relation to what actions they take in child protection service cases. The empirical data for the study is primarily secondary data collected from the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics and from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. The questions at issue for the study are “Do the municipalities differ in the proportion of actions taken in child protection services and if so, how?” and “If it differs between the municipalities, do the municipalities’ structural conditions have an impact on the proportion of actions taken in child protection services and if so, in what way? The collected data shows that there are differences in the amount of actions taken in child protection service cases between the municipalities. Furthermore the analyses of that data demonstrates that the differences in the actions taken are correlated, both negatively and positively to the structural conditions of the municipalities. The findings also shows that the different variable groups of structural conditions have different explanatories of the variation in the actions taken. Demography is the single biggest explanatory while economy is shown to be the smallest between the groups. The greatest effect of a single variable is the education level of the municipality’s citizens. Further on the study exposes the differences between the Swedish municipalities and brings light to the inequalities in the Swedish welfare system. This despite its many regulations to decrees it and widely being known for being in the forefront of the universalistic viewpoint.