I am on my way to the annual International Family Violence conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the US. The conference is jointly hosted by the Family Violence Research Laboratory at New Hampshire University and the Crimes against Children Research Center, both leading research groups in the field. Around 200 delegates, mostly from Universities and research centres in the US, convene to share new research or service innovations. The journey over to the US is arduous, not made easier by a bomb threat at Heathrow that reminds me that family conflict is only one of the many ways in which children learn about the acceptability and normality of violence in modern life.