Introduction

The notion that it is harmful for children to be exposed to violence growing up in a family in which mum is beaten has received increased attention during the past decade. Studies from the US estimate the numbers of children exposed to some form of physical violence between their parents during their childhood ranges from 20% (Henning et al, 1996) to 37% (Holden et al, 1998).

In a review article, Edleson (1999) presents 84 studies describing psychological and developmental difficulties among children witnessing violence in the home. The children show significantly more signs of uneasiness, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and aggression than other children do. Being exposed to one's father beating one's mother might also lead to other long-term effects, such as distrusting others and a pessimistic outlook in terms of influencing one's own life situation. Because witnessing domestic violence can terrorise children and significantly disrupt child socialisation, many researchers have begun to consider exposure to domestic violence to be a form of psychological maltreatment (Peled and Davis, 1995; Somer and Braunstein, 1999). Some even argue that it is the most toxic violence children can be exposed to (McAlister Groves, 2001), and that its consequences have only recently begun to be understood (Adams, 2006). This is why the study of children who have experienced intimate partner violence in their homes is of great concern to research in social work. It is one of the most urgent and comprehensive challenges for researchers in social work to provide knowledge that may contribute to the development of services to these children, I will argue.

Nordic countries are generally regarded as global welfare role models in terms of their image of being gender equal, child friendly and culturally tolerant. Research from the Nordic countries that has critically examined how men's violence in families is perceived and responded to in the Nordic context has found that this is an over-simplistic image (Eriksson et al, 2005). How many children, then, are exposed to this toxic violence in the Nordic countries? As in all research concerning sensitive topics, it is difficult to get a reliable estimate of prevalence.