Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism Bergen

Short reads

Short reads of our publications

Reconciling children’s best interests with their right to be heard 

NEW ARTICLE: Postdoctoral Fellow Hege Beate Stein Helland has published her article on child rights in the prestigious journal International […]

A tale of two cases – investigating reasoning in similar cases with different outcomes

NEW ARTICLE: Why is it that some care order cases result in the child being removed from parental care, while […]

Public core values and views on child protection: A study of Norway and California

NEW ARTICLE: Do people’s core values explain their views on child protection position interventions? This is studied in the recent […]

Workplace democracy and democratic legitimacy in Europe

NEW ARTICLE from our former DIPA-team member, Dr. Bilal Hassan in the Economic and Industrial Democracy. Hassan investigates whether workplace […]

 Public defence: Audun Løvlie

Our DIPA-fellow, Audun Gabriel Løvlie, defended his doctoral thesis in political science for the degree of PhD at UiB, Friday […]

Populations express confidence in their child protection system

NEW ARTICLE in the prestigious Journal of Social Policy: PhD candidate Mathea Loen and Professor Marit Skivenes finds that a […]

Den første NOUen for barn

Barn har rett på informasjon om saker som gjelder dem, og det må være tilpasset informasjon. Skivenes-utvalget som har levert […]

Professor Marit Skivenes presents NOU 2023: 7 on rule of law in the Norwegian child protection system

Monday 20th of March, Marit Skivenes, professor at the Department of Government and head of the Center for Research on […]

The Oxford Handbook of Child Protection Systems

NEW BOOK: This handbook, edited by Jill Duerr Berrick, Neil Gilbert and Marit Skivenes, is the largest to date overview […]

Citizens prefer permanency for children in public care

NEW ARTICLE: In the largest study to date of citizens views on the situation for children growing up in long […]

The invisible child

NEW ARTICLE: The authors of this article examine whether and how children at the centre of child protection removal decisions […]

How do parents argue for their right to care?

NEW ARTICLE: In this recently published article in the Journal of Social Work,[1] PhD fellow Ida B. Juhasz (DIPA, UiB) […]

Decision-makers draw unevenly on expert evidence

NEW ARTICLE:Researcher Audun Løvlie (UiB) evaluates how decision-makers in the Norwegian County Social Welfare Board consider disciplinary evidence in child […]

Extensive cross-country study of people’s trust in child protection systems 

NEW ARTICLE: Professor Marit Skivenes (UiB) and Professor Emeritus Rami Benbenishty (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar Ilan University) finds […]

Child protection system matters for public opinion on state interventions

NEW ARTICLE: Dr. Hege Stein Helland (UiB), PhD-candidate Siri Hansen Pedersen (UiB) and Professor Marit Skivenes (UiB) examine people’s perspectives […]

Determining the best interests of the individual child

NEW ARTICLE: Senior Researcher Jenny Krutzinna (UiB) proposes a new child-centric approach for determining the best interests of the child […]

Comparing states: When should parental freedoms be restricted?

NEW ARTICLE: Examining public attitudes towards parental freedoms in cases of risk to the child, Professor Jill D. Berrick (UC […]

How do citizens balance children’s rights against parents’ rights?

NEW ARTICLE: Professor Marit Skivenes and colleagues at UC Berkeley, USA, compare citizens’ rights orientations in context of child protection […]

Views on thresholds and reasons for child protection intervention

NEW ARTICLE: In this article,[1] Professor Marit Skivenes explores cross-country variation of population views on the thresholds of child protection […]

Justifying care order decisions in cases of violence

NEW ARTICLE: Audun Løvlie and Marit Skivenes examines the Norwegian County Social Welfare Board’s care order justifications in cases where […]

In the Best Interest of the Child?

NEW ARTICLE: Researcher at DIPA, Hege Stein Helland, studies the justification and rationality behind adoption from care decisions in the […]

Adoption from Care

NEW BOOK: International Perspectives on Children’s Rights, Family Preservation and State Intervention.

Changes in Child-Protection Systems?

NEW ARTICLE: Katre Luhamaa explores whether international human-rights supervision are triggering changes in child-protection systems.

Solidarity with Care-leaver Mothers

NEW ARTICLE: Jenny Krutzinna explores the dilemma between protecting children and safeguarding mothering opportunities for care-experienced mothers.

Services to Vulnerable Families

ARTICLE: Study of services and support for mothers and newborn babies in vulnerable situations in eight European jurisdictions.

Reporting Corporal Punishment

NEW ARTICLE: Study of population attitudes towards corporal punishment in five European countries.

The Importance of Parental Commitment

NEW ARTICLE: Decision-makers exercise of discretion in decisions on adoption from care.

Family life for children in state care

NEW ARTICLE: Analysis shows that the status and respect of the child’s de facto family life is increasing.

Children are not sufficiently involved

NEW ARTICLE: Many children are absent in the decision-maker’s justification and conclusion about adoption, finds Skivenes & McEwan-Strand.

Judging Parental Competence

ARTICLE: Krutzinna & Skivenes analyse judicial decision makers’ assessment of mothers’ parenting capacities in newborn removal cases.

Assessments of future parenting

ARTICLE: New study presents needed insights into how legal decision-makers in Norway justify care orders of newborn children.

Adoption or public care?

ARTICLE: A new study shows interesting findings about the population’s view of adoption as a child welfare measure.

Acceptance of Corporal Punishment

WORKING PAPER: Analysis by Hasan M. Baniamin examines the dynamics of acceptance of parental corporal punishment around the world.

Errors and Mistakes in Child Protection

NEW CHAPTER: Skivenes & Tefre examine the structures for detecting and communicating errors and mistakes in the Norwegian child protection […]

Competence in Child Protection Cases

NEW ARTICLE: Comparison of the judicial child protection procedures in Germany with other European countries.

Norwegian Child Protection and its Critics

NEW REPORT: Comparison of the Norwegian child protection system and the systems of five East European countries.

Child Welfare Removal of Infants

NEW ARTICLE: Need for a re-examination of the rights of infants and their specific needs in the Nordic welfare states.

The Hidden Proceedings

NEW ARTICLE: Decisions about terminating parental rights to ensure an adoption from care are not accountable, finds new analysis.

Are Decision-makers in Alignment with the Citizens?

NEW ARTICLE: Interesting differences between the professionals that make decisions about children and families and the population.

Parents’ rights vs. Children’s rights

THESIS: Trond Helland has examined care order cases in the European Court of Human Rights in his master’s theses.

Children’s right to non-discrimination

NEW BOOK: Skivenes and Søvig have edited a book on the implementation of children’s right to protection from discrimination.

Involvement in care order proceedings

ARTICLE: Judicial decision makers express positive views about children’s and parents’ involvement, find Berrick, Dickens, Pösö, and Skivenes.

Adoption as a Child Welfare Measure

NEW REPORT: Adoption provides better living conditions, but is seldom used in the Norwegian child welfare system.

Are children in Norway sufficiently protected?

PUBLICATION: Skivenes and Falch-Eriksen identify possible blind spots in the Norwegian child protection system.

Children’s rights in Norway

NEW BOOK: Marit Skivenes is co-editor of a book analyzing the status of children’s rights in Norway.

Child perspective in focus

PUBLICATION: Marit Skivenes argues for children’s right to participate in her contribution to the book “Barnas barnevern”.

Child’s Best Interest Principle

PUBLICATION: The implementation of children’s rights across states still has a long way to go, claims Marit Skivenes and Line […]

Improving decision-making in court

NEW ARTICLE: The organization of care order proceedings might be an obstacle to good decision-making, finds Marit Skivenes and Milfrid […]

Room for improving the child-friendliness of courts

NEW ARTICLE: J. D. Berrick, J. Dickens, T. Pöso and M. Skivenes have published an article in International Journal of Children’s […]

How parenthood is defended in court

NEW ARTICLE: Ida B. Juhasz has published an article in Child & Family Social Work on argumentation in care order appeals.

New publications

“Towards a new theory of professional discretion – the importance of reaching for the difficult” Marit Skivenes has contributed with […]

New articles

“Care Order Templates as Institutional Scripts in Child Protection: A Cross-system Analysis”   In a new article Jill Duerr Berrick […]

Responses to Children Appearing to be at Risk

PUBLICATION: Professional discretion differs between child welfare systems and workers, find a new study by Berrick, Dickens, Pösö and Skivenes.