Event Details

The Everyday Lives of Children Who Have Experienced Domestic Abuse

CfJ In Conversation: Dr Brenda Herbert

The Everyday Lives of Children Who Have Experienced Domestic Abuse

The Centre for Child and Family Justice Research (CfJ) hosts an In Conversation event with Dr Brenda Herbert, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and Sociological Review Fellow 2024–25, to mark the publication of her recent monograph The Everyday Lives of Children Who Have Experienced Domestic Abuse (Bristol University Press, February 2026).

Drawing on an 18-month multimodal ethnography conducted in an inner-London borough, the book explores how children live with and make sense of domestic abuse in their everyday lives. Moving beyond dominant narratives that frame children only through harm and vulnerability, the research foregrounds children’s relationships, creativity, humour and forms of resilience, revealing the complexity of their social worlds.

Engaging with insights from Black feminist, decolonial and Indigenous scholarship, the book challenges conventional understandings of childhood and domestic abuse and invites us to rethink how children affected by violence are understood and supported in research, policy and practice.

In this conversation, Dr Herbert will discuss the research behind the book and reflect on what it means to take children’s everyday experiences seriously when developing responses to domestic abuse.

This event forms part of the CfJ “In Conversation” series, which invites researchers, practitioners and students into conversation around critical research and new thinking on issues affecting children and families.

All are welcome.