The population's confidence in the child protection system - a survey study of England, Finland Norway and the U.S. (California)

This paper examines the confidence the population (N=4003) has in the child welfare system in four countries; England, Finland, Norway and the U.S. (California). We find that about half or less of the population reports having... [ view full abstract ]

This paper examines the confidence the population (N=4003) has in the child welfare system in four countries; England, Finland, Norway and the U.S. (California). We find that about half or less of the population reports having confidence in the system, which is slightly higher than the confidence in the civil servants in the same countries. The Nordic countries display more confidence in the child welfare system than the Anglo-American countries. The similarity between the countries is however greater than anticipated. As for independent variables that can shed light on differences in confidence level, we find three variables to be related to a higher confidence level, and these are a left wing political orientation, lower age, and higher education. This study contributes in filling a knowledge gap on studies about trust in the child welfare system, but we emphasize that we have studied an aspect of trust that rests on the population's impressions of a system, and not their substantial knowledge about or identification with this system.