ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the moral and political constitution of violence, risk and protection in the arena of family life and professional intervention through a case study where a 15-year-old boy has committed a sexual offence. The family is not the only site of cultural and gender oppression, particularly when ‘the family’ enters the domain of professional treatment and investigation. The response of society (via its institutions) to protect vulnerable groups, while drawing on values of justice and civil rights, can also be understood as an exercise of power drawing on normative, moral postulates and wider political agendas in contemporary western society.
