A need for support
Barnahus — “children’s house” in English — began as “a rather radical idea about how to bring together services to help victimized children”. That’s according to OsloMet professor Kari Stefansen, a sociologist with a focus on violence and abuse against children and young people. Fellow professor Elisiv Bakketeig has a background in law and criminology.
Together, the two were the lead researchers responsible for the first national evaluation of the model in 2012. They recently released a book describing their research on the Norwegian model over the past decade.
“Before Barnahus, the landscape of services was fragmented,” says Bakketeig. “The child and family would have to go from agency to agency and repeat their story of abuse; that was a very difficult situation for the child”. This indifference to the well-being of victims caused a lot of frustration among healthcare and legal professionals alike.
To address this problem, Norway created a system where the child could come to one place and get multiple services.
Under the Barnahus model, children are better supported throughout the penal process and receive more recovery services.– Kari Stefansen
As a result, barnahus was introduced to Norway in 2007. It drew inspiration from the Barnahus model in Iceland and similar initiatives like the Children's Advocacy Centers in the United States. The model was quickly adopted and expanded rapidly. Today, Barnahus has 12 locations throughout Norway, including a specialized center for the Sami population that opened in 2024.
This rapid expansion was largely state-driven, with the Ministry of Justice and Public Affairs leading a pilot program that offered Barnahus centers substantial autonomy. “There were no formal guidelines at first, just some direction, so it was very much up to the Barnahus to develop the model” says Bakketeig. This autonomy gave Barnahus the ability to develop effective context-sensitive methods for social work.
The Barnahus approach
The professors say that the introduction of Barnahus in 2012 was a significant social innovation.
It’s no longer a frustratingly fragmented system. Instead, now, when there is an accusation of abuse, a child can come directly to a Barnahus facility to get the legal and medical care they need. It is a supportive environment, with kid-friendly waiting areas, assessors trained in forensic interviews, and senior staff there to explain what is happening.
“The result is a model that provides better support to victimized children and that has led to new collaborative ways of working” says Stefansen. She came to this conclusion after years of conducting interviews and surveys with everyone involved in Barnahus — from the children, to the police, to the medical staff.
According to her and Bakketeig’s evaluation, under the Barnahus model, children are better supported throughout the penal process and receive more recovery services. Their psycho-social needs are assessed and many of them receive psychological treatment.
Kari Stefansen and Elisiv Bakketeig at NOVA – Norwegian Social Research have been researching the Barnahus model since its introduction in Norway in 2007. NOVA is a leading player in Barnahus research internationally. Photo: Nina Eriksen / OsloMet
However, the researchers also note challenges.
Not without imperfections
The Barnahus model is promising, but it can struggle to balance the needs of the penal system with the health needs of the child.
“The idea is that the model is to be holistic or balanced, but the balance can be shifted.” Stefansen says that in their evaluation, they found that when resources are scarce, the penal case gets prioritized and recovery services suffer.
Consistent regulation and better resource allocation are crucial to maintaining the balance between justice and recovery in the Barnahus model.– Elisiv Bakketeig
This can result in insufficient focus on the children's medical and psychological needs. Bakketeig and Stefansen stress the importance of ongoing national evaluations to address these challenges and ensure that Barnahus continues to provide comprehensive support.
They recommend strengthening the inter-ministerial collaboration between the departments that oversee Barnahus: the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs. They argue that consistent regulation and better resource allocation are crucial to maintaining the balance between justice and recovery in the Barnahus model.
The future of Barnahus
Looking ahead, Bakketeig and Stefansen are exploring the spread of the Barnahus model across Europe. They say there are ongoing efforts to standardize the model, but caution that this must be done thoughtfully to preserve the flexibility and context-sensitive approaches that have been key to its success in Norway.
Additionally, they emphasize the need for more research, particularly studies that capture the experiences of children within the Barnahus system. These will inform future developments and ensure that the model continues to improve.
The Barnahus model in Norway represents a promising approach to supporting children exposed to violence and sexual abuse. The lessons Bakketeig and Stefansen learn from continuing to evaluate and research the model could inform similar initiatives across Europe, helping to ensure that all children receive the care and support they need to heal from their experiences of violence and abuse.
New book
Read the new open access book on Barnahus: Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children. Institutional Tensions in Nordic and European Barnahus Models published at Palgrave Macmillan.
Read the book for free (link.springer.com)Further reading
Read more about NOVAs research programme about violence in close relationships and our Barnahus research (uni.oslomet.no).
Research articles
- Andersen, L.C. (2024). Enabling and Preserving Situational Social Work in Barnahus: A Vulnerable Jurisdiction Caught in the Crossfire Between Juridification and Psychologisation. In: Johansson, S., Stefansen, K., Bakketeig, E., Kaldal, A. (eds) Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology (link.springer.com)
- Johansson, Susanna; Stefansen, Kari (2019). Policy-making for the diffusion of social innovations: the case of the Barnahus model in the Nordic region and the broader European context. Innovation. The European Journal of Social Sciences (tandfonline.com)
- Stefansen, K. (2017). Staging a Caring Atmosphere: Child-Friendliness in Barnahus as a Multidimensional Phenomenon. In: Johansson, S., Stefansen, K., Bakketeig, E., Kaldal, A. (eds) Collaborating Against Child Abuse. Palgrave Macmillan (link.springer.com)
