Beyond the Power and Control Wheel: how abusive men manipulate mobile phone technologies to facilitate coercive control

Abstract

Mobile phone ownership has become almost universal, with smartphones the most popular consumer electronics device. While the role of technologies and digital media in the domestic abuse of women is gaining international attention, specific information regarding how mobile phones, and their various ‘apps’, may assist perpetrators in the coercive control of their current or former partners is still a relatively unexplored area in the research literature. This study with women survivors was able to identify that perpetrators use mobile phones in ways that go beyond the traditional tactics of abuse identified through the globally used feminist theorisation of the Power and Control Wheel (developed by the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme). The portability and diverse capabilities of mobile phones have been manipulated by abusive men to develop strategies of ‘agile technological surveillance’, which allow them to track and monitor their partners in various ways ‘on the go’ and irrespective of physical proximity. An adaptation of the Power and Control Wheel has been developed and licensed to account for these new opportunities for surveillance, manipulation and control. Proposals are made for integrating this revised framework into professional practice to inform the assessment and management of risk in abusive relationships.

Generic personal safety applications: empowering victims of domestic violence and abuse? A practitioner lens

“…However, concerns from DVA specialist sector practitioners highlighted the app's features might serve to exacerbate risks to victims because abusers often monitor victims phone. Moreover, encouraging the use of this generic PSA may reinforce an entrapment structure, where technology, regarded as pivotal to protecting victims, is the 'panopticon' of surveillance of DVA victims (see Havard and Lefevre, 2010). There are still new and adapting forms of technology-facilitated 'tech-abuse' through information communication technologies (ICT), supporting cyberstalking and the hyper-regulation of everyday life via control/coercion for victims of DVA.…”

Crime and deviance during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Abusive behaviors, including coercive control, may amplify as preparators can deprive victims of COVID‐19‐related needs (e.g., masks, hand soaps, cleaning materials) and use technological devices for surveillance and to control access to online communication (Slakoff et al., 2020 ). In fact, in a qualitative study with survivors, women described how their abusers controlled their access and use of phones by allowing them to only speak with certain individuals, at particular times of the day, and for a certain duration (Havard & Lefevre, 2020 ). This limited virtual contact with others can leave victims suspectable to further harm from perpetrators.…”

“…In addition, numerous initial studies on crime during the COVID‐19 pandemic have generally relied on police recorded data, with only a few studies using victimization data including in‐depth interviewing of the victims (e.g., Havard & Lefevre, 2020 ; Lantz & Wenger, 2021 ; Sampson & Ojen, 2021 ). Certain offenses such as IPV and cybercrime are often unreported (Boman & Gallupe, 2020 ; Cheng et al., 2018 ; Payne et al., 2020 ; Piquero et al., 2021 ).…”

Digital Coercive Control and Spatiality: Rural, Regional, and Remote Women's Experience

“…This term identifies "the method (digital), intent (coercive behavior), and impact (control of an ex/partner)" and positions harm in a broader setting of sex-based inequality (Harris & Woodlock, 2019, p. 533). The concept of "coercive control" is central here (see also Havard & Lefevre, 2020;Woodlock, 2013Woodlock, , 2017, which is a gendered theory. Essentially, theorists maintain that men use coercive control violence in efforts to exploit, maintain, and reinforce their status and power (Douglas et al, 2019;Hester, 2010;Stark, 2007).…”