HISTORY OF CHILD WELFARE: A Present Political Concern

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s, an increasing number of inquiries into the history of children’s out-of-home care have shown that child welfare sometimes failed to protect children. In this Special Issue, we explore how the Nordic countries have responded to allegations and scandals of historical child abuse within child welfare, and also how history matters in these political processes. We ask how Nordic societies have acknowledged past historical child abuse and how they aim to deal with its legacy. Attempts to redress, and provide compensation for, past failures are discussed in the context of transitional justice.

KEYWORDS:

• Child welfare
• inquiries
• transitional justice
• child abuse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Wright, Sköld, and Swain, “Examining Abusive Pasts,” 162.

2. Swain, Wright, and Sköld, “Conceptualising and Categorising,” 291.

3. ‘Lived history’ and ‘lived experience’ emphasize the ways in which history matters in current societies. The Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences (HEX) studies the lived welfare state, among others, and focuses on institutionalized experiences and experienced institutions, such as child welfare and poor relief. The oral history method and the politics of history often link the past with the present and underline the historicity of the present. See https://research.uta.fi/hex/ (accessed 3 March 2020).

4. See the list of Nordic inquiries at the end of this article.

5. The Danish Godhavnsundersøgelsen included testimonies from 85 care leavers (an additional 14 informants were former staff); the Swedish Inquiry was based on interviews with 866 care leavers claiming to have been abused whilst in care; the Finnish inquiry was based on interviews with 299 people (mainly care leavers); the Icelandic inquiries covering eleven institutions were based on interviews with approximately 400 care leavers, and finally, the seven regionally conducted inquiries in Norway are in total based on interviews with 743 care leavers (the inquiry conducted by Bergen City Council reports that the majority of the 133 interviewees were care leavers but that some former staff had also been interviewed, which makes it difficult to determine exactly how many of the 133 were care leavers). Numbers of witnesses are retrieved from The Age of Inquiry database: Wright, Swain, and Sköld, ‘The Age of Inquiry’; Hytönen et al., Lastensuojelun sijaishuollon; and Ólöf Garðarsdóttir’s article in this special issue.

6. One notable exception to this situation is the trial of Catholic Cardinal George Pell, which was instigated in the wake of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

7. Eisikovits, “Transitional Justice.” The International Journal of Transitional Justice was launched by Oxford University Press in 2007.

8. Von Wahl, ‘The Politics of Reparations.’

9. Sköld, “Historical Abuse: A Contemporary Issue,” 10.

10. Hamber and Lundy, ‘Lessons from Transitional Justice?’, 2. A search for ‘child abuse’ in the International Journal of Transitional Justice conducted on 8 April 2020 generated only six hits, whereas just two articles address historical child abuse inquiries and related mechanisms of redress.

11. See note 9 above, 12.

12. Daly, “Redressing Institutional Abuse,” 192.

13. Winter, “Towards a Unified Theory of Transitional Justice,” 226.

14. Olick, The Politics of Regret, 122; See also Barkan, The Guilt of Nations.

15. Brooks, “The Age of Apology”; and Gibney, Howard-Hassmann, Coicaud, and Steiner, eds. The Age of Apology.

16. Wright, Sköld, and Swain, “Examining Abusive Pasts.”

17. Bevernage, “Writing the Past Out of the Present,” 122.

18. See, for example, Arvidsson, Att ersätta det oersättliga; Daly, Redressing Institutional Abuse of Children; deWilde et al., “The Role of Life Histories”; Ericsson, “Victim Capital”; Golding, “Sexual Abuse as the Core”; Jensen, At åbne skuffen; Leuenberger et al., Die Behörde beschliesst; Sköld and Sandin, “Att delta eller stå brevid”; Sköld and Swain, eds., Apologies and the Legacies of Abuse; Swain, “Both Victim and Perpetrator”; and Wright and Henry, “Historical Institutional Child Abuse”.

19. Hamber and Lundy, “Lessons from Transitional Justice?”; Gallen, “Jesus Wept”; McAlinden, “An Inconvenient Truth”; and Gallen and Gleeson, “Unpaid Wages”.

20. Hytönen et al., Missförhållanden och vanvård av barn; SOU 2009:99. See also Grønbæk Jensen, Att åbne skuffen.

21. Vergerådsloven 1896/1900 and Pleiebarnsloven 1905 in Norway were the first, followed by the 1953 Child Welfare Act. In Denmark, the 1905 Child Welfare Act. In Sweden, child welfare acts were passed in 1902, 1924 and 1960, followed by new legislation in 1980. Child welfare acts were also passed in 1932 in Iceland, and in 1936 and 1983 in Finland. Dahl, Barnevern og samfunnsvern, 84–91; Pulma, Suomen lastensuojelun historia, 105–107; Andresen, Hender små, 27–33; Andresen et al., Barnen och välfärdspolitiken, 16; Harrikari, Lastensuojelun historia, 162–175.

22. Dahl, Barnevern og samfunnsvern; Runcis, Makten över barnen; Harrikari, Lastensuojelun historia, 205–207.

23. Andresen et al., Barnen och välfärdspolitiken.

24. Hytönen et al., Missförhållanden och vanvård av barn. See also Harrikari, Lastensuojelun historia, 226–249.

25. Wright, Sköld, and Swain, “Examining Abusive Pasts,” 170; Arvidsson, “Contextualizing Reparation Politics,” 75; Simonsen and Pettersen, “The Politics of Apology,” 120; and Jensen, At åbne skuffen, 18–19.

26. Sköld, “Apology Politics,” 17; and O’Sullivan, “The Ryan Report”.

27. Arvidsson, ‘Contextualizing Reparation Politics’, 74; Simonsen and Pettersen, “The Politics of Apology,” 120; Jensen, At åbne skuffen, 18–19; The Prime Minister’s Office Denmark, ‘Statsminister Mette Frederiksens tale’.

28. Broberg and Roll-Hansen, Eugenics and the Welfare State; Koch, Tvangssterilisation i Danmark; Koch, Racehygienje i Danmark; SOU 2000:20; The Nordic Conference, contributions by Signild Vallgårda, Mattias Tydén, Per Haave, Lene Koch and Unnur Karlsdóttir in Christensen, Lundberg, and Petersen, eds. Frihed, lighed og velfærd. In Finland, eugenics and forced sterilizations were studied by Marjatta Hietala and Markku Mattila, but neither of them contributed to the conference report in 2001. Hietala, “From Race Hygiene to Sterilization”; Mattila, Kansamme parhaaksi.

29. Arvidsson, “Contextualizing Reparations Politics,” 75.

30. Golding, “Sexual Abuse as the Core.”

31. SOU 2011:61; Hytönen et al., Missförhållanden och vanvård av barn.

32. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing them Home; Honouring the Truth. See also, Curthoys and Docker, “Special section: “Genocide”?” for a discussion of the application of the concept of genocide and associated terms.

33. Simonsen and Pettersen, “The Politics of Apology,” 119; Pettersen, Tatere og misjonen; Lehtola, Saamelaiset, 232; and Anttonen, Menetetty koulunkäynti, 54.

34. Selvitystyön suunnitelma, 9.

35. Krasnik, “Tvangsfjernede grønlændere fik deres undskyldning”; Lindmark and Sundström, De historiska relationerna mellan Svenska kyrkan och samerna.

36. Government of Greenland, 2019. Nu starter undersøgelse af grønlandske børns flytning til Danmark, 2019–04-10. Accessed 21 February 2020. https://naalakkersuisut.gl/da/Naalakkersuisut/Nyheder/2019/04/1004_undersoegelse.

37. Sannhets- og forsoningskommisjonen 2020, website: https://uit.no/kommisjonen.

38. Speech from the Ministry of Employment 2020–01-27, Åsa Lindgren, Minister of Gender and Equality, Speech at the UN Periodic Review in Geneva. Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.regeringen.se/tal/2020/01/jamstalldhetsminister-asa-lindhagen-tal-vid-fns-upr/.

39. Prime Minister’s Office 2019. Saamelaisten totuus- ja sovintokomission valmistelu [Establishing a truth and reconciliation commission concerning the Sámi people]. Accessed 9 March 2020. https://vnk.fi/saamelaisasioiden-sovintoprosessi; Svenska YLE. Statlig samekommission för sanning och försoning – men blir det också konsekvenser? 2019–11-17. Accessed 26 February 2020. https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2019/11/17/statlig-samekommission-for-sanning-och-forsoning-men-blir-det-ocksa-konsekvenser.

40. Prime Minister’s Office, 2020. Accessed 20 April 2020. https://tietokayttoon.fi/haku/ilmoitus/-/asset_publisher/valtioneuvoston-selvitys-ja-tutkimustoiminnan-vuoden-2020-ensimmainen-taydentava-haku; The Danish Welfare Museum 2020. Accessed 20 April 2020. https://www.svendborgmuseum.dk/visforsorgnyhedermtemplate/993-historisk-udredning.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Johanna Sköld

Johanna Sköld is Professor in Child Studies at Linköping University, Sweden. Address: Department of Thematic Studies, Child Studies Unit, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden. email: [email protected]

Pirjo Markkola

Pirjo Markkola is Professor of history, Tampere University and Vice Director, Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences (HEX). Address: Faculty of Social Sciences/History, 33014 Tampere University, Tampere, Finland. email: [email protected]