'An Offence We Could All Do WIth Learning More About': Identifying and Responding to Coercion in Intimate Partner Relationships: Key Findings Summary Report

In the past decade, significant strides have been made in the criminal law’s recognition of, and capacity to respond to, harms arising in the context of domestic abuse that do not fall within existing frameworks for criminalising physical or sexual violence. In a move that has been advocated by domestic abuse specialists for some time (Scott, 2020), legislation has been passed that creates the potential for a more holistic legal understanding of the dynamics of abusive behaviour. Such legislation targets, in particular, the patterns of coercion and control - often manifest through forms of emotional abuse, financial control, or orchestrated surveillance or social isolation - that operate within intimate relationships to cement, support and even supplant the use by perpetrators of physically aggressive or sexual violence.
This report explores criminal justice professionals and domestic abuse specialist organisations views on the implementation of coercive control offences in England, Wales and Scotland.