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About PROTECT

PROTECT is a socio-legal research project about children's rights, crime prevention and public safety.

Project summary

To an increasing degree, children engage in serious violent crimes that are perceived as threats to public safety, including violent extremism, and terrorism. A core problem for the Nordic welfare states is how to provide public safety and prevent crime and social exclusion, and at the same time protect children鈥檚 rights.

Two key institutions play pivotal roles in addressing this group of children: the child protection system and the criminal justice system. Each system operates with distinct rationale, legal and professional concepts and tools, leading to different interpretations of child rights, the needs of society, the children, and the public. In spite of the weighty societal implications, the key systems and interactions between them are understudied.

PROTECT will advance knowledge about the challenges of integrating public safety with protection of children鈥檚 rights in the Nordic context. PROTECT will conduct pioneering interdisciplinary research by combining law and political science, innovative methodological approaches and cross-country examinations.

Work packages

WP1: Legitimate preventive system functions
  • Objective: Clarify the preventive functions of and functional relation between the criminal justice and the child protection systems
  • Methods: Legal and conceptual analysis of formal legal sources
WP2: Children鈥檚 experiences and viewpoints
  • Objective: Examining children鈥檚 participation and children麓s views on public safety
  • Method: Interviews and survey with children in child protection / criminal justice systems and their representatives/spokespersons/lawyers
WP3: The systems understanding of child rights and public safety
  • Objective: Identify the current policies and practices to children engaging in criminal activities and especially the increase in violent  criminal activities
  • Method: Document and discourse analysis; interviews, survey data
WP4: The societal understanding of child rights and public safety
  • Objective: Examine the general public understanding of child-rights, public safety and prevention of crime and social exclusion
  • Method: Population survey

Project managers

Linda Gr枚ning听(笔滨)

Professor of Law, University of Bergen. Gr枚ning聽is among the leading researchers internationally on criminal responsibility and punishment. She is an expert on Norwegian criminal law, including interdisciplinary, comparative, and empirical dimensions, with special expertise on criminal justice and children. Gr枚ning is also Head of the Research Group on Criminal Justice and Mental Health, and project manager for DIMENSIONS and CHILDCRIM.

Marit Skivenes (co-PI)

Professor of Political Science, University of Bergen. Skivenes is recognized as one of the world鈥檚 leading scholars in the field of child protection systems. She is an expert on the implementation of children鈥檚 rights and on child protection in Norway. Skivenes is also the Director of Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism, Head of the Research Group on聽Law, Politics and Welfare, and聽project manager for CPS-WORLD, LEGITIMACY and PARTICIPATION.

Last updated: 15.06.2025