School in a Complex Field of Policy and Practice

Abstract

Hierarchies between groups of professionals, discourses and areas of policy and practice have implications for children exposed to violence and whose parents dispute family law issues. The chapter outlines different domains of policy and practice in the field of child welfare, domains that are shaped by different histories, problem definitions, professional groups and that are related to different parts of the legal system. Furthermore, it is argued that education can be conceptualized as a separate domain in itself that needs to be added to the analysis of how welfare systems tackle domestic violence. An important question is how domestic violence tends to be understood and defined in this domain.