Child Protection Systems Across the World

There are changes in how societies view and treat children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 is now universally ratified and has led to increased attention to children’s rights and welfare worldwide. Furthermore, the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development places the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people – including children – at the top of the political agenda. The new focus on children’s rights, and the state’s growing role as a protector of these rights, underscores the importance of empirical knowledge and theoretical insight into child welfare systems. We know that governments’ interpretation of children’s rights, and how they choose or are able to respect and protect these rights, varies greatly around the world. However, existing typologies for child welfare have limitations, and we lack empirical data that allows for global comparisons. CPS-WORLD is interdisciplinary and will combine innovative methodological approaches and studies across countries, using multiple data sources and combining qualitative and quantitative studies, including vignettes, experiments, and text analysis. The project is the most comprehensive study ever conducted in this field. It is groundbreaking in its empirical and critical ambition to explain the crucial factors and mechanisms in child welfare systems. We will conduct randomized survey experiments to generate unique data that identify possible causal mechanisms to explain differences in the normative basis of child welfare systems. This project is innovative in that it analyzes both population data and the courts’ views on children in vulnerable situations. CPS-WORLD will offer theory development in child welfare, serving as a tool to both describe and explain differences across countries. Research assistant Layne Wetherbee has been working on the project since 01.08.2024. Furthermore, the hiring process for a researcher position is in its final stages. Professor Jørn Sunde is starting a position on 01.01.2025. Since the last report, work has been done on a large-scale survey that will initially cover 41 countries, and several scientific papers are being prepared, some of which have already been submitted for journal review. The book “Oxford Handbook of Child Protection Systems” was published in 2023 and launched at the international EUSARF conference in Brighton in September 2023. Smaller project workshops have been conducted in Bergen in April/May 2024 and August 2024. Results from the project have also been presented at international conferences in Tampere in February 2024 and Helsinki in August 2024.

Societies are at an intersection when it comes to how children are treated. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of 1989 is today universally ratified, and has led to increased attention around children's rights and welfare across the globe. Further, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people – including children – at the top of the political agenda. The emerging focus on children’s rights, and the growing role of the state as the protector of these rights, underlines the importance of empirical knowledge and theoretical insights about child protection systems. We know that governments’ interpretation of children's rights, and how they choose or are able to respect and protect these rights, varies a great deal across the world. However, the existing typologies of child protection have limitations, and we lack empirical data that allows for global comparisons. CPS-WORLD aims for transdisciplinary research, and will combine innovative methodological approaches and cross-country examinations, applying several data sources and combining survey, vignettes, experiments and text analysis. The project is the most comprehensive cross-country study ever undertaken in this field. It is pioneering in its empirical and critical ambition to explain the decisive factors and mechanisms in child protection systems. We will conduct randomized survey experiments to generate unique data identifying possible causal mechanisms to explain differences in the normative foundation of child protection systems. This project breaks new ground in that it analyses and compares the public’s and the judiciary´s views on children in vulnerable situations. CPS-WORLD will offer theory development in child protection, a field with a nascent research base, that will serve as a tool for both describing and explaining cross-country differences.