This open access book contributes to ongoing discussions about how societies should respond to children who have experienced violence and abuse by delving into the Barnahus model: a multidisciplinary and co-located model whose aim is to provide both justice and recovery to victimised children. The promising model was first implemented in the Nordic region and is currently being diffused across Europe, although scientific knowledge about the model remains scarce: the Barnahus models potential for delivering holistic services, the various tensions and dilemmas involved in the model, and how dual mandate of Barnahus can be managed all require further research. Continuing from the volume Collaborating Against Child Abuse (2017) which examined the process of Barnahus diffusion in the Nordic countries, the current book digs deeper into the intrinsic institutional tensions of the model, as well as those that might arise during collaboration, in order to advance our understanding of what can be achieved through the model and thus improve the situation of child victims of violence and abuse. An institutional perspective is used in the book which is structured in four parts. The first three parts explore different types of institutional tensions legal, organisational, and professional-ethical, while the fourth focuses on how these tensions may be balanced. The books authors chart this new phase in the diffusion and translation of the Barnahus model. Their analyses will provide valuable guidance to countries that are currently considering or are already implementing the model.
Chapter 1: Introducing the Barnahus model through the lens of
institutional tensions.- Part 1: Legal tensions.
Chapter 2: Criminal law
and the Barnahus model.
Chapter 3: Just Outcomes? Exploring Justice Tensions
in the Barnahus Model.-Part 2: Organizational tensions.
Chapter 4: What is a
Barnahus? Exploring stakeholder views on the Norwegian Barnahus model.-
Chapter 5: Bridges or stumbling blocks factors impacting on the
introduction of the Barnahus model in the United Kingdom.
Chapter 6: Dealing
with violence, an interpretative, administrative, active or passive approach?
External and internal organizational tensions in social services
investigative work.-Part 3: Professional and ethical tensions.
Chapter 7:
Barnahus work as professional practice: Is standardisation the best way
forward?.
Chapter 8: Rights holder, family member or crime victim? Target
group constructions in Swedish Barnahus.-Chapter 9: Challenges when
investigating crimes against preschool-aged children.- Part 4: Balancing
institutional tensions.
Chapter 10: Barnahus in different institutional
settings: experiences across Europe.
Chapter 11: Making collaboration work
in the field of child abuse and child protection practice: concluding remarks.
Susanna Johansson is an associate professor at the School of Social Work, Lund University, Sweden.
Kari Stefansen is a research professor at Norwegian Social Research (NOVA) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
Elisiv Bakketeig is a research professor at Norwegian Social Research (NOVA) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
Anna Kaldal is a professor in procedural law at the Law Faculty of Stockholm University, Sweden.
