Stepchildren’s judicial interview narratives of experiencing domestic violence

Abstract

Children’s first-hand accounts of experiencing domestic violence (DV) are underrepresented in research. This article is concerned with stepchildren who have experienced DV in homes where the stepfather is suspect for perpetrating a pattern of violence against mother and child. The aim of the study presented in this article was to explore the stepchildren’s accounts of experiencing DV, emphasising how children narrate their own and others actions and positionings, using a narrative method. The data used in this study consists of authentic DVD-recordings of judicial interviews, conducted in Norwegian Barnehus (Children’s Houses), with three children, two boys and one girl, ages 10–12. These interviews were gathered as evidence for courtroom hearings in relation to DV-cases and were performed by police officers with a special competence in an interviewing method called Dialogical Communication Method. Our analysis suggests that in an atmosphere characterized by the stepfathers’ power regimes, children describe frightening, dangerous, and emotionally difficult experiences which do not position children as passive “witnesses.” On the contrary, the children position themselves as agents who think, assess, and act to preserve themselves and their own integrity, while at other times acting to protect their mother as opposed to themselves. It is argued here that exploring “real world” data, namely children’s accounts of DV gathered as evidence in relation to DV court case proceedings, can give important insight into stepchildren’s experiences of violence perpetrated by stepfathers.

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