The children and young people sitting in the country's 21 Sis homes are among society's most vulnerable. Every year, around 1,100 children and young people are placed on Sis by social services, most of them forcibly according to LVU.

For the period January 2019 to May 2022, the organizations Childhood and Children's Rights Agency have found 209 reports from the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care, Sis, and the Inspectorate for Health and Social Care, Ivo, where some form of sexual violence or violation occurs in the homes. This means that an average of about five such incidents are reported from different Sis homes each month.

Reports of abuse have been drawn up at all but one of Sis homes. According to the study, the abuse is most often about male staff who subject girls in care to sexual violence, but there are also reports of sexual abuse of boys.

According to the study, when children and young people raise the alarm about sexual violence or abuse, the stories often stay within Sis, despite the fact that the law requires such incidents to be reported on to Ivo.

There may be unreported cases

Childhood and Barnrättsbyrån want to highlight shortcomings in the state compulsory care and the study is primarily based on Lex Sarah reports, documentation of children's complaints to Ivo and minutes from the youth councils that will be held at the youth homes. The organizations note that there is probably a number of unreported cases because children often do not talk about sexual abuse. No police reports made during the period under review have been reviewed.

SVT has previously in several reviews revealed violence and abuse at Sis' youth home - and as recently as 2021, another report from Childhood and Barnrättsbyrån revealed that there was an extensive use of force against children.

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How a so-called Sis home works