ABSTRACT
This chapter explores children's experiences of domestic violence. In contrast, it argues that framing children as 'vulnerable' functions to undermine an understanding of their located capacity for agency, and can render children voiceless in specific contexts. Gatekeeping practices intend to protect vulnerable children have an unintended consequence of preventing them from articulating their own experience. In contrast, data suggests that interviews can be affirming, empowering and constructive experiences of being heard and listened to. The chapter presents examples that challenge the positioning of children who experience domestic violence as vulnerable and damaged, and that highlight young people's capacity to articulate their experiences of violence, its impact, their coping practices and their capacity for agency. The chapter argues that children who experience domestic violence find ways of managing their familial experiences using a range of paradoxical resiliencies.
