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Overview
Are conflict problems ever resolved? Are they merely transferred? Or do they mutate into another form? Should the state be the arbiter of family life?
Looking at child protection in Finland it is evident that institutional solutions to resolve child protection issues have been often invoked. The consequences have not always been positive.
D.6. Reading Look at this before doing the tasks to be found in No.7 in the dropdown menu. After which the Answer Key Pointers and Sources can be used to evaluate your answers to the tasks.
Think About:
“Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence” – Ronald Raegan
“The child welfare system – devised and run by liberal social workers, psychologists, and judges…treats incompetent or abusive parents as its clients, and only secondarily considers the needs and well-being of the children involved” – Mona Charen
“Our brains are wired for connection, but trauma rewires them for protection. That’s why healthy relationships are difficult for wounded people” – Ryan North
“Light-touch government works more efficiently in the presence of social capital. Police close more cases when citizens monitor neighborhood comings and goings. Child welfare departments do a better job of “family preservation” when neighbors and relatives provide social support to troubled parents. Public schools teach better when parents volunteer in classrooms and ensure that kids do their homework. When community involvement is lacking, the burdens on government employees-bureaucrats, social workers, teachers, and so forth are that much greater and success that much more elusive” – Robert D. Putnam
Materials Updates/News:
Periodically, materials will be updated, or there may be news items worthy of attention related to this Unit. They will be notified here. If you come across any news/resources, e.g. journal/newspaper articles relevant to the content of this website, please let me know. I can be contacted via the email address below.
If you thought things were bad in Finland then check out the Maya Kowalski case in the USA.
The scandal that is child welfare in the Nordics has a historical context:
Sköld, J., and Markkola, P. (2020). History of child welfare: a present political concern. Scandinavian Journal of History 45(2): 143-158.
A provocative, subjective and detailed study is the following that documents the unfolding events of a child protection case study. In the preface on Amazon it states:
It is dedicated to rescuing my Australian Children from the for profit "care" of Psychiatry - of State & Corporation of Finland. "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power" Mussolini. McLachlan, W. (2014). The Dark Side of Finland.
A pdf of the book is at:
https://darkfinland.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/book4.pdf
In 2023 a member of the Finnish Parliament was raising the issue and reaffirming the experience of McLachlan, but he had to apologise:
Yle. 29.3.2023. MP al-Taee says his child protection services criticism was “poorly worded.”
In 2018 there was a major scandal in Norway involving child protection services. This issue is a significant problem in all countries including the Nordics. There is a BBC video on YouTube: "Norway's Silent Scandal - Children in Care." It is at the confluence of the Social Sciences and Law.
Yle. 2.5.24. Child protection reports double in decade.
Korkman, J. et al., (2019). The prevalence of unfounded suspicions of child sexual abuse in Finland. Nordic Psychology. 71(1): 39-50.
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