Röster som inte hörs : En juridisk studie om hur barnperspektivet redovisas i LVU-domar

Sammanfattning: The child perspective is a complex area primarily because of its many ways of interpretation but also because children are considered to be less competent than adults. Our hypothesis was that adults in court-proceedings make decisions in the child’s place. The aim of this study was to investigate the judicial meaning of the child perspective in “Socialtjänstlagen” (SoL) and “lag om särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga” (LVU). The purpose was also to explore how the child perspective was presented in rulings from the Public Court according to LVU 3§, in the prerequisite “annat socialt nedbrytande beteende”. The choice of method was based on our main purpose and therefore the legal dogmatic and the qualitative methods were applied. The child perspective in Swedish legislation emphasizes the child’s best interest and the child’s right to be heard. There have been problems recognizing children’s legitimate interests which are one of the reasons why adults are considered to protect those interests by speaking for the child although they may have different interests. The result was that the child’s voice was inadequately asserted in legal processes which indicated that the child perspective wasn’t used as intended according to the law and government bill.