When a child is placed in any residential setting in Denmark - foster care or in a residential treatment facility the risk of being victim of sexual abuse increases a lot.

Of course the best choice would be if sexual abuse could be avoided, but even the strictest facility cannot supervise all children 24/7. The economy will suffer. The clients whether it is parents or the public sector will not pay tor full staffing 24/7 seven days per week.

So sexual abuse will happen at some point, in fact surveys made after year 2000 show that it happens twice per month on average in Danish foster families, group homes or residential treatment centers.

Knowing that it is inevitable the next thing is to handle it correctly. Left untreated the molested child could grow up and be a molester later in life. A survey from 2006 did show that most of the residential treatment centers had no knowledge of the strategy and guidelines the government had made to deal with this issue. The result could be that the molested children were not cared properly for. A tragedy not only for the child victimized by the abuse but also possible for the family of the molested child later in life.

Now here in 2011 there are no signs that the situation back in 2006 are changed. However With a new government in charge there is hope that changes are possible.

A number of changes are required:

• The number of children who are removed from their families need to be lowered as a lot of the problem is based in the number of placements. Denmark has 25 percent more placements than countries like Norway or Sweden. A lower number of placements will reduce sexual abuse as a lower number are easier to monitor.
  
• All staff member of foster parents should be taught how to observe the signs of sexual abuse happening during the placement of the child. It is very easy to assume that changes in behavior are rooted in experiences before the placement. However a number of cases show that there is a need to change the pattern of the thinking among the staff so they become aware that the abuse can take place during the placement.
  
• The staff should be taught how to help and treat a molested child so the victimized child doesn't have to be moved to a new facility and by this move experience what only can be seen as a defeat and a punishment.
  

Let’s hope that the new government in Denmark will be able to do that.



Source (In Danish)
Seksuelle overgreb på børn og unge på døgninstitution - omfang og indsats</a> (Anvendt Kommunal Forskning - 2006)

We just got word that the police in South Zealand have decided to charge a foster care family who was living in the town of Mern of neglect and abuse. It is the final nail in a sick foster care system functioning totally outside any political control.

Last month it was revealed that a residential treatment facility named Herkules sent some of the children in their care to a subcontractor in Sweden where they received a special kind of wilderness therapy including being placed in alleged minefields and being forced to watch a false escape attempt where young actors pretended to have their fingers cut off and fed to dogs.

According to testimonies from now young adults who have been living a various foster care families and group homes all over Denmark the cases mentioned above are not single incidents. All too often the social workers back in their original town see a placement as "out of sight, out of mind". There are not good enough plans for the return to society. The children hardly receive education making them able to function as adult.

Reports are that every 14 day a kind of sexual attack will take place among the children. The people hired to work in the group homes are not educated to talk with the children about the abuse they suffer and it increases the possibility that the victims will become abuser over time.

Without proper supervision the foster care families and group homes have not only become warehouses where the children will be kept for an undisclosed period of their lives but also a place where the children will be hurt and scared for life.

The State of Denmark has around 14.000 children in their care. It is by far the highest number among the Nordic countries. It is with the cost of 13 billion DKK also the most expensive system among the Nordic countries. A recent report did show that there is no proof that a residential solution will work regardless of how it is put together.

What is worse is that there is no system supervising how the individual foster care family or group home is chosen. It increases the possibility for a high level of corruption. While Denmark doesn't make use of private paid educational consultants which is a line of work general known for their use of payment in return for referrals to certain boarding schools and residential treatment facilities, there are social workers who decides which group home will get the task without anyone getting an insight in what kind of circumstances which became the deciding factor when choosing a certain partner for the job.

We must urge the politicians in Denmark to demand a reconstruction of the entire system. In the case of the foster care family in Mern there had been complaints for almost an entire decade. It is not acceptable.

Danes! Demand justice for your children

Press-release from Domestic prisoners of conscience

News have reached us about misconduct at a juvenile detention center in Forrest County in Mississippi.

Southern Poverty Law Center has gone into the matter.

Here is a link to their press-release including a video-clip showing these disturbing incidents.

SPLC Sues Mississippi County after Shocking Video shows abuses in Juvenile Facility