What is coercive control and why is it so difficult to recognize?

a post by Charlotte Barlow, Sandra Walklate and Kelly Johnson for the OUP blog


“Grayscale Photograph of Woman Touching Her Eyes” by Juan Pablo Arenas. CC0 via Pexels

Engaging in controlling and/or coercive behaviour in intimate or familial relationships became a new criminal offence in England and Wales in December 2015.

Coercive Control involves a pattern of abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten the victim.

Example behaviours included in this legislation are

• isolation from friends and family,
• deprivation of basic needs,
• monitoring behaviour and time,
• controlling a victim’s life and/or finances, and
• may include physical violence.

The introduction of this offence was welcomed for recognising the cumulative impact of various forms of domestic abuse and for encouraging police and other criminal justice agencies to move beyond an incident-led and physical violence-based understanding of domestic abuse.

However, four years on since the legislation was enacted and with no compulsory national level training or support, what has actually changed?

Coercive control as an offence carries implications for how we record and understand coercive control and domestic abuse victimisation more broadly in the UK. Despite recent figures suggesting an increase in recorded crimes of coercive control (from approximately 4,000 in 2016-17 to over 9,000 in 2018-19), prosecutions and convictions for the offence remain consistently low.

This is in contrast to other domestic-abuse related crimes, namely those that result in actual bodily harm, which are 20% more likely to result in an arrest and a charge.

Furthermore, the Office for National Statistics recently removed coercive and controlling behaviour questions from the Crime Survey for England and Wales because of uncertainty as to whether the questions were adequately capturing victims of the offence.

Continue reading

See also:
Putting Coercive Control into Practice: Problems and Possibilities
Charlotte Barlow, Kelly Johnson, Sandra Walklate, Les Humphreys
The British Journal of Criminology, azz041,
Full text (PDF 20pp)

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Older adults and violence: an analysis of Domestic Homicide Reviews in England involving adults over 60 years of age

an article by Susan Mary Benbow (University of Chester, UK; Older Mind Matters, Manchester, UK), Sarmishtha Bhattacharyya (University of Chester, UK; Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wrexham, North Wales, UK) and Paul Kingston (University of Chester, UK) published in Ageing & Society Volume 39 Issue 2 (June 2019)

Abstract

Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) are conducted when an individual aged 16 or over appears to have died from violence, abuse or neglect by a person to whom they are related or with whom they are in an intimate relationship or who is a member of the same household. DHRs aim to identify lessons to be learned, to improve service responses to domestic abuse and to contribute to prevention of domestic abuse/homicide.

We submitted Freedom of Information requests to English Local Authorities to identify DHRs where victim, perpetrator or both were aged over 60.

Collected Reports and/or Executive Summaries were thematically analysed.

Analysis identified four key themes in the context of the key relationship and caring:

• major mental illness of the perpetrator;
• drug and/or alcohol abuse;
• financial issues; and
• a history of domestic abuse in key or family relationships.

We analysed 14 adult family homicides, 16 intimate partner homicides and five homicide–suicides.

Age per se did not emerge as a significant factor in our analysis. Terminology needs to be standardised, and training/education regarding risk assessment needs to be improved in relation to age, myths around ageing/dementia and stresses of caring.

Management of mental illness is a key factor.

A central repository of DHR Reports accessible for research and subject to regular review would contribute to maximising learning and improving practice.

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Yes, you can be “strong” and still be a victim of coercive control

an article by Suzanne Jacob published in the New Statesman

A judge said Lauren Smith was too “strong and capable” to be affected by the behaviour of her ex-boyfriend.



For three years, it has been a crime to control someone close to you in your life. When the legislation was passed in December 2015, professionals and survivors hoped that the criminal justice system finally understood the impact and seriousness of this kind of behaviour. Anyone who has been a victim of abuse, or seen it first hand, knows power and control are at the heart of it. But to see it written down in law was a positive step to taking it seriously and, crucially, holding the perpetrator to account.

Three years later, we see once again that legislation alone is not the answer. A recent court case considered the experience of Lauren Smith, whose ex-boyfriend spat in her face and taught her one-year-old son to call her a “slag” and a “slut”. But in her ruling, judge Helen Cousins described Lauren Smith, as too “strong and capable” to be affected by the behaviour of the perpetrator, despite the court being satisfied that control and coercion did occur within the relationship. “There’s no doubt the victim is a strong and capable woman, whose evidence was truthful. She has since successfully removed herself from the harmful situation,” Cousins said. “It is to her credit that I cannot find the defendant’s behaviour had a serious effect on her in the context of the guidelines for this offence.” 

These comments show a worrying misunderstanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse.

Continue reading and please try to keep you temper in check!

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The role of trade unions in supporting victims of domestic violence in the workplace

an article by Gemma Wibberley, Carol Jones and Alison Hollinrake (University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK) and Tony Bennett (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) published in Industrial Relations Journal Volume 49 Issue 1 (January 2018)

Abstract

This article explores the effects that domestic violence has on victims in their workplace and how trade unions respond. Focusing on the experiences of union representatives, the research highlights the support offered to victims, the barriers representatives face and the under‐acknowledged personal impact that these cases can have upon representatives.

Full text (PDF 17pp)

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