What is coercive and controlling behaviour?
Sponsored feature | Sophie Scotcher, senior associate, HCR Hewitsons
Coercive control is a pattern of behaviour which has a serious effect on the victim, to the extent that, more than once, they were afraid violence would be used against them, or they have felt serious distress, and it has had a substantial effect on their daily life.
That behaviour, which has victims of every gender, might look like:
- Threats, humiliation, and intimidation used to harm, punish, or frighten
- Damage of property or possessions
- Deliberate isolation from sources of support, like friends and family
- Monitoring of phone or online activities
- Deliberate deprivation of basic needs, like food or sleep
- Exploitation of resources for personal gain
- Control of finances
- Restriction of independence and escape
- Controlling of lifestyle – for instance, dictating movements, social activity, and clothing
- Gaslighting, where the abuser tries to convince the victim that they are wrong about something, when they are not.
Where it can be proved, victims may be provided with injunctions which keep their abuser from entering a specific property or the area around it, or an order which stops them molesting the victim.
A breach of that order can lead to arrest and is often used to stop the pestering, harassing, intimidating, and threatening of the victim. It also stops the abuser asking others to do so and can include threats on social media. Non-molestation orders typically last between three months or one year but are at the discretion of a judge.
Coercive control is also relevant in deciding arrangements for children and settling finances upon separation. This is becoming more common in the family courts, and the recent concluding remarks from a Court of Appeal case of H-N and others [2021] EWCA Civ 448 ran: “Each of these appeals are examples in differing ways of the importance of the modern judiciary having a proper understanding of the nature of domestic abuse and in particular of controlling and coercive behaviour and of its impact on both the victims and the children caught up in the atmosphere engendered in such a household.”
The case confirmed that the current law surrounding domestic abuse is fit for purpose, but the challenge lies in how judges put it into practice.
Contact Sophie Scotcher at sscotcher@hcrlaw.com or on 01223 869254.
Visit hcrlaw.com.
Read more
Digital assets: how switched on are you?
Do you need planning permission to work from home?
