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Aim

This paper discusses the ‘translation’ of a child welfare assessment model from the English Child Integrated System ICS to a Swedish counterpart, BBIC (abbreviation for Children’s Needs in Focus). The focus is on the discursively produced knowledge on violence in intimate relationships in the context of child welfare assessments.

Background

BBIC is a conceptual risk and needs framework and a modified version of the English ICS that has been adapted to ‘Swedish conditions’, legislation and practice. The study examines this geopolitical ‘translation’ from one system to another looking at how these modifications can be understood in relation to what is often regarded as a cross-cultural phenomenon: (children at risk of) domestic violence. Using the concept of translatability, the paper critically explores the ‘universal’ claims regarding risk, violence and security that remain through the translation process and what knowledge and assumptions that are possible to incorporate, adapt to or even abandon altogether. 

Method

Discourse analysis is used as analytical framework with which evaluations, reports and research linked to BBIC and ICS are analysed.

Findings

The analysis of this research addresses risk assessment approaches in the context of child welfare systems and the prevailing understandings of violence in intimate relationships they generate, as well as those that are open up for contestation when children are in focus of analysis. 

Conclusion

Multifaceted approaches across disciplines, cultures as well as a merging of theory and practice are commonly advocated approaches towards complex social problems. The analysis indicates what is considered to be legitimate evidence-based practice in these contexts and what kind of understandings of domestic violence are generated in the context of child welfare assessments.