“How We See This”

This article deals with the question of how participation opportunities for young people in residential childcare interplay with their risk of victimisation. In doing so, it starts from the perspectives and experiences of young people, a research perspective that is central to these questions and is gaining in importance internationally. In the Swiss project “How we see this”, young people talked in group discussions about their experienced and denied opportunities of participation in everyday life in care. The analyses show that their opportunities for participation can be restricted by institutional structures and processes. Depending on the extent of this restriction, they must create their own opportunities. The conclusions formulated here about the interplay between opportunities for participation and the risk of victimisation show: the promotion of participation in the structures and processes of residential care reduces the risk of becoming a victim of psychological, physical or institutional violence – or at least it increases the likelihood of complaints in the event of such experiences.