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Domestic Violence, Family Law and School discusses the ways in which family law disputes in cases of domestic violence can impact on children's lives at pre-school and school. In drawing on new research, the book establishes a new framework for understanding how welfare systems tackle domestic violence, Domestic Violence, Family Law and School discusses the ways in which domestic violence can impact on children's lives at pre-school and school. Disputes over parental responsibility, living arrangements or child contact can create difficulties not just for the child of disputing parents, but for all children at preschool or school, as well as for staff. This book uncovers new research on an under-explored area of children's lives and social work with vulnerable children and is shaped by a comparative lens that brings both similarities and differences between England, Wales and Sweden into focus. A theoretical framework for analyses of how welfare systems tackle domestic violence is elaborated and lessons for practice that can be drawn from the findings presented are highlighted

Nordic countries are generally regarded as global welfare role models in terms of their image of being gender equal, child-friendly and culturally tolerant. By focusing on the vital welfare issue of violence by men to female partners and/or their children, this book seeks to reconsider this over-simplistic image

AbstractA growing interest in children's participation has led to an increased need for methods for communicating with children. Empirical knowledge on ways to secure children's participation in encounters with welfare professionals and in decisions regarding their life is, however, scarce. One example of a practice model intended to enable children's participation is 'Good Dialogues'. Presenting results from an evaluation study of the feasibility and practical use of the Good Dialogues model, this article explores the ways in which practitioners manage to put the agenda of child‐centred and child‐guided dialogues with children underpinning this model into practice. The ways in which children's participation is undermined are also discussed as well as the need for further knowledge development.

This compilation dissertation examines the role of software in online music distribution and critically scrutinizes the increased influence of digital technologies in everyday life. In particular, it explores how software coordinates and arranges things, people, and information surrounding music and thereby exerts a logistical power that makes music calculable and governable online. The dissertation consists of four case-studies that problematize the role of software and algorithms in regulating how digital music moves. Article I highlights the role of algorithms in organizing, evaluating, and creating knowledge about artistry, article II uncovers the material, political, and technical networks that facilitate streamed music, article III scrutinizes editorial playlists and their role in packaging and containing digital sound, and article IV traces how software is designed to identify and regulate how music moves and is monetized in the online domain. These case studies draw attention to issues concerning visibility, access, ownership, control, but also—as this dissertation especially aims to highlight—the elements of surprise, unpredictability, and unsettlement that are inherent to complex software technologies. The research contributes to three subfields in media and communication studies: music-oriented media studies, materialist media studies, and software studies. It contributes to music-oriented media research by accounting for the role of digital technologies in organizing musical practices and thereby illustrates how algorithms and software must be taken seriously as agents that shape cultural practices surrounding music. Relatedly, the research contributes to materialist- and softwareoriented media research by continuing the tradition of paying close attention to the technical constitution of media technologies and reflecting on the power and politics of software logistics and its unpredictabilities. Methodologically, the research builds on—and advocates—a mixed-methods approach that combines the use of digital methods, media archeological tactics, and a technology-oriented ethnographic approach. In combining these methods, the dissertation illustrates the benefit of experimental and qualitative methods in the study of digital technologies and highlights the need to approach software as both an object of study and a strategic research tool. Theoretically, the dissertation mainly draws upon materialist and German media theory (e.g., Kittler 1990; 1999; Ernst 2012; 2016), theorizations of logistical operations (e.g., Neilson 2012; Cowen 2014; Durham Peters 2013; Case 2013; Young 2014; 2015), and theories regarding technological accidents, ruptures and unpredictabilities (e.g., Frabetti 2010; Virilio 2007; Parikka and Sampson 2009; Fuller and Goffey 2012). In doing so, the dissertation highlights how the hidden and seemingly 'grey' and mundane task of regulating the movement of online music online is, in fact, a deeply cultural and subject to ongoing power struggles. Ultimately, the dissertation illustrates the continued relevance of media research that critically engages with software, adopts digital and experimental methods in the study of digital technologies, acknowledges the logistical power of software, and accounts for the unpredictable events that software technologies sometimes trigger.

The article displays how human rights law is extending into the sphere of domestic criminal law, as seen through the approach to human trafficking by the European Court of Human Rights. The Court is increasingly demanding the criminalisation of harmful acts to prevent harms and to protect potential victims. The content of domestic laws is also progressively subject to evaluation of the Court, in line with its development of placing positive obligations on states to protect individuals from harm perpetrated by private actors. Human trafficking is an example where the Court has not only found the crime to fall within the ambit of Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits slavery, forced labour and servitude, but through case law has concretised various positive obligations for states. These include adopting effective criminal laws that cover the acts included in human trafficking. Such laws must be clear and not open to various interpretations. If the law is similar to that of the Palermo Protocol, it is considered effective. However, it is indicated that other constructions may also reach the required level of effectiveness. It is submitted that the methodology of the Court in delineating state obligations is flawed in that the Court demands effective laws but does not clarify what 'effectiveness' entails. The casuistic style of the Court negates its increasingly outspoken goal of developing the rules of the Convention for all Member States. The rather broad margin of appreciation of states in formulating domestic criminal laws conflicts with the demands of 'effectiveness' in protection.

The aim of the article is to discuss interacting power relations and policy change. Children's exposure to intimate partner violence and policy change in Sweden is the empirical case in point. It is argued that to understand the shift in Swedish policy as regards exposure to intimate partner violence it is important to recognize, on the one hand, the social order shaping policy and practice, and, on the other hand, the role of collective and individual actors in the field as well as the opportunity structure that enables social change. Furthermore, subordinating children to adults comes across as a particularly potent way of challenging gendered inequality in the form of men's violence against women in intimate relationships. Possibilities for social change thus seem to be greater in relation to gender, than age. An empirically sensitive and actor-centred intersectional analysis must be sophisticated enough to grasp complexities such as these if we are to be able to fully understand agency and policy change within a complex social order.

The aim of the article is to open up for further discussion and empirical research the relation of men's violence to men as parents. Drawing upon previous research on men's violence against women, it is suggested that a man's relationship with his partner and relationships with his children can be conceptualized as arenas linked to an overall process of gender constitution. Also discussed is how Swedish policy creates a context for men's identity work and practices as parents that is enabling with regard to men's access to children, but restraining with regard to action against men's violence post-separation/divorce.

ABSTRACTThe article presents a study on structured support for the professional assessment of emergent domestic violence in families with children. Data are presented on the development and study of a new structured support called iRiSk emergency, which was developed jointly by the authors of this article, and an emergency social work unit in Stockholm, Sweden. The model was developed from the iRiSk model, which, translated from Swedish, stands for 'Interventions and Risk and Protection Assessments for children exposed to violence'. Structured support for emergency risk assessments is rare as existing instruments mainly focus on screening for violence and are not designed to guide professionals in situations of identified violence. The purpose of the research project is elaborated through two research questions: (1) Which information is needed for emergency assessments, and how can it be collected? (2) What are the specific preconditions of the child welfare service emergency work to be taken into account in terms of emergency risk assessments? The feedback from the social workers was that iRiSk emergency was flexible to use, decreased the risk of missing important risk factors and made the assessments more child‐centred. The model appears to be a viable approach for enhancing the systematic evaluation and testing of structured support for emergency risk assessment in social work, surpassing the limitations of the current study.

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to analyse approaches to issues of risk, responsibility and representations of violence in women social workers' conversations with alleged or confirmed violent fathers. The study adds to a growing body of research on agencies' handling of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the context of separation. Empirically, the study draws from 12 structured, audio recorded and transcribed interviews with support‐seeking and divorced fathers, from five municipalities in Sweden, conducted as part of a cooperation project in which a risk‐detection method (Family Law Detection Of Overall Risk Screen [FL‐DOORS]) was also tested. The results suggest a tension between different professional tasks. To validate information on IPV, detect risk and enhance a child perspective competes with other professional projects, most obviously with promoting cooperation between parents. The study confirms previous research, which demonstrates unique challenges facing women social workers and counsellors when working with men as perpetrators. In conclusion, the paper concurs with the call for a focus on responsibility and on safe parenting in professional conversations with allegedly or confirmed abusive fathers.