Structuring Practice for Children’s Participation. Report I for the Participation Project: Mapping and Evaluating Organizational Guidelines

publishedVersio

The Invisible Child. A Comparative Study of Newborn Removal Judgments from a Child Equality Perspective (CEP)

We know little about how children are portrayed in care order cases. Using a Child Equality Perspective (cep), which demands the child’s presence in proceedings even for children who are not capable of partaking fully in the decision-making process, we examine a sample of 216 judgments from 8 countries involving 220 infants. Our study reveals that the children remain largely invisible, but with clear country differences. Children’s invisibility constitutes a fundamental obstacle for children being “equal” in the judgments that will shape the child’s future. This invisibility raises concerns about the quality of the judicial decisions about the child’s best interest.publishedVersio

The vulnerable and pathologized child : children’s objectification by the European Court of Human Rights

Symposium: Child Protection and Human Right

How child welfare workers view their work with racial and ethnic minority families: The United States in contrast to England and Norway

This study builds on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 93 child welfare workers employed in public child welfare agencies in the United States, Norway and England, and examines their perceptions of working with racial and ethnic minority families in contrast to White service users. Almost all workers reported on differences. In the United States, workers regarded cultural pluralism as a given and considered it an inherent feature of their work, regardless of the racial and/or ethnic background of the family. Further, they identified poverty, racism, and lack of feelings of entitlement as dimensions to practicing with minority families. A few mentioned language as an issue. The views of workers in the U.S. stand in stark contrast to the perceptions of workers in both England and Norway. They thought that communication challenges constituted a major problem, and that minority clients' lack of language proficiency and knowledge about society and social systems made it difficult for workers to understand families' meaning and intent (Kriz & Skivenes, 2009; 2010b). We discuss how caseworkers' perceptions may influence their decisions and affect minority disproportionality in the child protection system and analyze what factors may account for the cross-country differences we found. We also relate our findings to the broader question of citizenship and social rights in American society.Child welfare workers England Minority families Norway Substantive citizenship United States

Investigation and evaluation of a method for determination of ethanol with the SIRE (R) Biosensor P100, using alcohol dehydrogenase as recognition element

A new method for rapid determination of ethanol was developed, using alcohol dehydrogenase as recognition element for the SIRE (R) (sensors based on injection of the recognition element) Biosensor, which is an amperometric biosensor. The method was simple, fast, accurate, specific and cost-effective. The recognition element solution used was stable at least for 24h in room temperature, and at least one month when lyophilised. The optimal potential versus the silver wire electrode, the optimal pH of the buffer and the optimal temperature of the water bath was determined to be +950 mV, 8.1 and 308 K, respectively. The optimal concentrations of alcohol dehydrogenase, BSA and NAD(+) were deterntined to be 200 U/ml, 20 mg/ml and 15 mM, respectively. The total analysis time was between 50s and 4 min per analysis, depending on the concentration ran-e. The linear range was 0-12.5 mM. The detection limit was less than 0.1 mM. The repeatability (%R.S.D.) was 3-5% (n = 10). The reproducibility was 5-8% (n = 5). Methanol gave no signal at all, but higher alcohols, such as propanol, pentanol and hexanol, gave significant signals, decreasing with increasing length of the carbon chain. The price for one measurement was calculated to be 0.052 euro. The results from measurements with the biosensor were compared to those from an established analysis kit for ethanol. The results correlated well (R-2 = 0.9874). The concentration of ethanol in different alcoholic beverages was investigated and correlated well with the concentrations given by the manufacturers. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The Invisible Child. A Comparative Study of Newborn Removal Judgments from a Child Equality Perspective (CEP)

We know little about how children are portrayed in care order cases. Using a Child Equality Perspective (cep), which demands the child’s presence in proceedings even for children who are not capable of partaking fully in the decision-making process, we examine a sample of 216 judgments from 8 countries involving 220 infants. Our study reveals that the children remain largely invisible, but with clear country differences. Children’s invisibility constitutes a fundamental obstacle for children being “equal” in the judgments that will shape the child’s future. This invisibility raises concerns about the quality of the judicial decisions about the child’s best interest