Coercive control is a form of domestic abuse – domestic abuse is not just physical abuse.
Coercive control is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation, or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten the intended victim.
Controlling behaviour is designed to make a person dependent on the perpetrator by isolating them from their usual support network, be that family or friends, exploiting them, depriving them of their own independence, and regulating the victim’s everyday behaviour.
Women’s Aid was successful in campaigning for Coercive Control to be made a criminal offence, and this has been the case since 2015.
The impact of Coercive Control on a victim can be very serious indeed. It creates invisible chains, and victims develop a sense of fear that can pervade every aspect of their day-to-day lives. In the most serious of cases, it can deprive victims of their freedom and reduce their ability to do anything about it. A criminal offence since 2015. This has marked a huge step forward in tackling domestic abuse. But now we want to make sure that everyone understands what it is. Experts such as Evan Stark liken coercive control to being taken hostage: “the victim becomes captive in an unreal world created by the abuser, entrapped in a world of confusion, contradiction and fear.” (Stark, 2007).
How can you tell if this might be happening to you?
Common examples of coercive behaviour include:
- Being isolated from friends or family
- Being deprived of basic needs, such as food and money
- Having your time monitored or controlled
- Being monitored in terms of your online communication via apps or spyware
- Being controlled in relation to aspects of everyday life, such as where you can go, who you can go and see, who you can spend time with, what you can wear, and where you can sleep
- Preventing you from accessing support services, e.g. your GP
- Being made to feel worthless and being constantly belittled
- Humiliating, degrading or otherwise dehumanising you
Some sobering statistics on Coercive Control:
- 43,774 offences of Coercive Control recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2023 – an increase from 41,626 in the year ending March 2022, and 33,954 in the year ending March 2021.
- 566 offenders were convicted of coercive control in the year ending March 2023.
- Of those, the majority of offenders were male against female, but men can also be victims of Coercive Control too.
- Analysis of Merseyside Police data found that common abusive behaviours used included the: “…use of technology (such as phone trackers, controlling social media usage, barrage of text messages or monitoring phone usage), sexual coercion, monitoring behaviours, isolation, threats, financial abuse, deprivation (depriving access to support) and physical violence (63% of coercive control cases featured reports of physical violence)” (Barlow et al., 2018).
If you consider that you may be the victim of domestic abuse, you should contact the police in the first instance, but if you feel unable to do that for any reason, you can contact the Family Law Team at Onions & Davies Solicitors, who will be able to provide assistance. Onions & Davies are signed up to the Safe Places Shropshire Safer Scheme, which means that we provide a short-term haven to vulnerable people in our local community.
Simeon Bowen-Fanstone is a solicitor in the Family Law Team at Onions & Davies Solicitors with years of experience in Family Law matters. He offers initial consultations for legal advice and also runs Onions & Davies Solicitors’ Family Law Clinic on a Friday morning.
For more information about any of the issues raised in this article or for an appointment with Simeon, please contact Onions & Davies Family Law Department at 01630 652405.