10/10/2020
Examples of the tactics used to coercively control.
OUTLAWING COERCIVE CONTROL
Most DV is not just getting hit or physically injured. In fact,.the majority of abuse tactics (including many that equate to torture) aren't even against the law. Partner abuse is much, much more than the cruel things an abuser DOES TO his partner. It is also things he TAKES FROM her - her autonomy, her freedom to come and go as she pleases, her peace of mind, her friends, her personal space, her privacy, her dignity, her financial independence, her sense of self, and so much more. Many victims live under constant siege; like a prisoner, a possession or a slave, not an intimate partner. Often, a pervasive pattern of control is evident, and the perpetrator dominates the victim's entire life by using intimidation, threats and violence to enforce rules he creates. He then punishes her for non-compliance, orperceived disobedience or disloyalty.This violation of the victim's basic human rights is referred to as COERCIVE CONTROL.
Coercive Control is a theory developed by longtime DV expert and reseacher Dr. Evan Stark, who coined the term and described the pattern in his seminal book, Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life. The physical and emotional toll that such non-stop subjugation takes on victims' lives is devastating.
Since DV was made illegal in the U.S., it has been narrowly defined as acts of physical violence. But Dr. Stark and others have worked diligently for years to educate policymakers and legislatures, encouraging them to classify coercive control as a crime. Some countries, including those in the U.K., have already outlawed it nationwide. U.S. states have recently begun to introduce and pass legislation making psychological abuse and coercive control against the law. My longtime home, Hawaii, where I was a victim and became an advocate and activist, has just became the first state to outlaw it. California quickly followed and others are working on it.
It remains to be seen how various law enforcement agencies across the nation will categorize certain tactics of abuse, how often arrests will be made, the vigor with which it will be prosecuted, and how judges and juries will respond and hold abusers accountable. Hopefully in time, we will see DV perpetrators routinely arrested and convicted of coercive control, psychological abuse and financial abuse. Stay tuned.
