Coercive Control: Update and Review

Abstract

This article reviews the background, introduction and critical response to new criminal offenses of coercive control in England/Wales and Scotland. How the new Scottish offense is implemented will determine whether it can overcome the shortcomings of the English law. Next, we review new evidence on four dimensions of coercive control: the relationship between 'control' and violence;' coercive control in same sex couples; measuring coercive control; and children's experience of coercive control. Coercive control is not a type of violence. Indeed, level of control predicts range of negative outcomes heretofore associated with physical abuse, including post-separation violence and sexual assault; important differences in coercive control In December 2009, VAW published a Special Issue 'Focusing on Evan Stark's Coercive Control" Since then, advocacy-driven public law making based on coercive control and the critical response has spun far ahead of evidence-based research building or testing the model. This article describes this process, considers the implications of recent research for conceptualizing and measuring the construct and applies coercive control to new research on violence in same sex couples and the coercive control of children. Critical scrutiny of the ways in which the law responds to partner abuse continues to animate academic, legislative and policy debate internationally (

The Criminalisation of Coercive Control: The Power of Law?

“…conceptualisation of coercive control and stands in contrast to the Scottish legislation introduced in 2018, which recognises the gendered pattern of domestic abuse and also includes ex-partners within its remit (Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018; see furtherBurman and Brooks-Hay 2018;Stark and Hester 2019).In terms of take-up by the criminal justice system, there were just over 9,000 offences of coercive control recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2018, out of a total of just over 2 million incidents of domestic abuse recorded for that year (Office of National Statistics 2018). These figures represent a doubling of coercive control offences recorded for 2017, clearly indicative of this new legislation gaining a foothold among practitioners.…”

Violence and Maltreatment in Intimate Relationships: A Family Science Analysis

“…For example, it is well known that physical violence often involves a psychological component and that forms of child abuse can be comorbid. A history of family violence may lead to future violence perpetration (e.g., McNaughton Reyes et al, 2015), and exposure to VMIR sometimes involves and has an impact on children more directly than existing conceptual definitions imply (see Stark & Hester, 2019). There is minimal discussion of polyvictimization and polyperpetration across chapters.…”

When Coercive Control Continues to Harm Children: Post‐Separation Fathering, Stalking and Domestic Violence

“…In 2015, s. 76 of the Serious Crime Act made coercive or controlling behaviour in a family or intimate relationship a criminal offence in England and Wales. This development has promoted greater awareness in the UK that domestic violence is not primarily about incidents of violence, but is often a pattern of controlling and coercive behaviours used by perpetrators over an extended time period to control and dominate another person/persons (Stark, ; Stark and Hester, ). Finnish law has not criminalised coercive control, but there is growing awareness of its harmfulness among Finnish professionals in the domestic violence field.…”