domestic violence, victims, malignant positioning, practicies in domestic violence interventions

This chapter concerns the expression of social workers’ emotions related to intervening in domestic violence (DV) and how these expressions result in the positioning of clients. We refer to positioning as the social and moral action, that involves assignment of the rights and duty for individuals to act in a certain way. Intervening in DV is an ethically and emotionally demanding practice, characterised by emotional labour and moral judgement. However, surprisingly little is known about social workers’ emotional responses in DV cases.