The adaptive nature of coercive control: how domestic abuse and coercive control operate through family court and professional systems

Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno, Director and Founder of SHERA Research Group

In England and Wales, coercive and controlling behaviour has been criminalised (Serious Crime Act 2015, s 76, Domestic Abuse Act 2021). Similar course-of-behaviour offences also exist in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Within these legal guidelines is a common premise; that coercive control is a repeated or continuous course of conduct designed to control, restrict, abuse and humiliate an individual. This much is increasingly understood by the courts, practitioners, and policymakers alike.

Drawing on current research in coercive control and forensic psychology, this article sets out that perpetrators of domestic abuse and coercive control exhibit consistent, recognisable patterns of behaviour when engaging with institutions and professionals. Not only this, but that professionals are often unknowingly utilised by the perpetrator, and form part of the perpetrator's system of control over a victim.  The aim of this paper is not simply to describe this phenomenon, but to serve as an introduction to judges, solicitors, social workers, and associated professionals as a practical means of recognising coercive control as it may be enacted through them and not just around them.