The paper presents preliminary findings from an ongoing explorative project in Sweden on children as social actors in family law proceedings, with particular focus on children whose father is violent to the mother. Since 1996 it is required by law that investigators, unless it is directly inappropriate, seek information about the child’s “view” and give information about this to the court. Until now, these encounters between children and family law investigators, and the implications for both children and professionals involved, have not been studied in any great detail in Sweden. The empirical material consists of three sets of qualitative data: semi-structured individual interviews with children; semi-structured group interviews with professionals from three work places; and written documentation (reports) submitted to the court by the professionals. The preliminary findings presented here concern notions of children who see and hear violence as ”witnesses to” and ”victims of” violence respectively, what such constructions mean for interpretations of children with a violent father, as well as for the professionals’ conversations with these children and documentation of the children’s perspectives.