The Swedish "special representatives for children" and their role in Barnahus

According to Swedish law, a 'Special Representative for Children' is to be appointed for a child victim, where a crime against the child is suspected which may carry a prison sentence, and where the child's guardian (i.e. normally the parent) is the suspect, or where a guardian may, as a result of his or her relationship to the suspect, not protect the rights of the child. In this chapter, I analyse the act and the role(s) of the special representative for children in the context of Swedish Barnahus. The "child focus" in Barnahus is explored from a rights-based perspective. The potential of the child’s independent legal representative is highlighted, inter alia in having a close and thorough view of the child's needs and wishes

Reelin supplementation enhances cognitive ability, synaptic plasticity, and dendritic spine density

This chapter presents and analyses children’s narratives about becoming summoned to, arriving and visiting a Barnahus. In the children’s perspective Barnahus became a house where children meet the police in serious matters. The children felt welcomed as guests, however hard work waited in the police investigative interview in front of scary cameras and strangers watching in an adjacent room. The children found they had needed more information about what was going on and why. The chapter concludes with suggestions for further research and reflections for practitioners in considerations of children’s experiences of procedures and of becoming addressed as non-acting objects – instead of the acting subjects the children talked about themselves as being and acted as in the research interviews.The chapter is submitted for publication in a book about the Nordic model of Barnahus.Research funders are: Research Platform for collaboration for Health at Kristianstad University, the research group Children's and Young People's Health in social context at Kristianstad University, the Kempe-Carlgrenska Foundations and the Letterstadska foundationChildren in Barnahus – an interdisciplinary study into child perspective