Var går gränsen för statens ansvar?

Upprättelseprocessen för dem som vanvårdats i samhällsvård ur ett historiskt perspektiv på normalitet, aga och barns rättigheter

Abstract

What is the limit of state responsibility? A historical perspective on how the state interpreted its responsibility to safeguard children from abuse.

In this article, we study the legislative processes that formed the basis for how the state’s role and responsibility to protect and represent children was formulated during the 20th century based on legislative initiatives against corporal punishment. This is the backdrop for an analysis of the scheme to compensate adults that have claimed that they as children had been abused in the care of the state. As a basis for our analyzes, we have used laws and statutes, ordinances, and preparatory works in family and criminal law as well as school and social law. In the process that led up to the compensation scheme a choice was made; child abuse in the past would not be defined according to the norms set by past legislation and government ordinances to protect children from abuse, but in relation to what was believed to be common child-rearing practices. The focus shifted to current understandings of what was normal in the past as well as to how similar abuse would be treated in legal practice in current tort cases disregarding the explicit stands taken by past governments to protect children in care. The opportunity for reconciliation decreased with this development.