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From Invisibility to Protection — Children in Prison with their Parent in Finland
Author(s) -
Enroos Rosi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/chso.12066
Subject(s) - prison , invisibility , legislation , criminology , construct (python library) , political science , position (finance) , child protection , sociology , law , psychology , business , physics , finance , computer science , optics , programming language
This article explores the process through which children in prison with their imprisoned parent have become a target of social concern in F inland. It is asked how the new social problem of ‘children in prison’ has been constructed. The data consist of relevant parts of the legislation and official documents. Three phases of social problem construction are named: (i) Children in prison as a practical and private matter; (ii) intense debate, problem formulation and developing practices and (iii) a public institutionalised practice. The position of children changed from one of invisibility to the target of protection. On the basis of children's rights, children in prison became understood as a group of children who are in need of child protection services. This example demonstrates how the images of problems construct solutions for practices.