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The risk discourse in turn includes an understanding of violence both as a physical
and psychological risk factor and endangerment of safety. The accurate content and criteria
of this risk factor vary in the data. The risk discourse is mostly and most openly
used when children are concerned. Potential risks of violence for adults are pondered on
remarkably less often and less directly. Like the interaction discourse the risk discourse
is used to both admit and deny the weight of violence in decisions over custody disputes.
The third identified discourse I named the child-rearing discourse, which is not as
visible in the data as are the other discourses on violence. The child-rearing discourse
means dealing with violence against children from the point of view of discipline. It was
used to evaluate whether the allegations of violence used against children were true or
not and when the risk of violence was described to be small and irrelevant from the
standpoint of the decision.
Violence in social workers’ reports
Social workers’ reports on families are analysed in Chapter 8. These reports play a central
role as providers of expert knowledge in child custody dispute cases taken to court.
They present and assess extensively the family relationships and phases of lives of parents
and children. I examined how violence was written about in the reports and what
conclusions were made based on them.
Two things emerged as the main results in the analysis. First, it seems to be fairly
common to leave descriptions of violence out of the reports. Second, when violence is
eventually written about in the reports, it is often done inaccurately, by using euphemisms
and avoiding taking a stand. I analysed 94 reports, all of which were from court
cases in which allegations of violence were presented. Fifty-four of theses reports included
stories of violence inflicted by one or both of the parents. In 25 reports, social
workers take a stand on violence. The figures reveal that allegations of violence are not
often included in the reports and that social workers’ own stands show in them even less
often. These results apply to both intimate partner violence inflicted by adults and violence
used against children.
Next the results of those 25 reports are summarized which revealed the social
workers’ own stands on alleged violence. First, in assessing whether violence has been
used, only one parent’s story does not seem to make social workers convinced. The as-
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