How agencies enable and perpetuate the coercive control of women

Abstract

This paper explores the need for a wider understanding of men’s violence against women, specifically coercive control, and the extent to which this far-ranging pattern of domination, exploitation, and dehumanisation is enacted beyond individual abusers. Men who engage in coercive control also manipulate agencies and professionals (in healthcare and criminal justice services as well as other sectors) as another medium through which they can harm their partners. Simultaneously, these agencies enact various forms of control and restriction over women who are trying to access support, mirroring and amplifying men’s abuse and further reducing women’s space for action (Kelly et al, 2014). This enmeshment of abusers and professionals makes it harder for women to escape violence and rebuild their lives, especially women from marginalised backgrounds and minoritised identities.This reflective piece draws on the research and practice experience of its authors to challenge the pervasive misunderstanding of coercive control as an episodic, interpersonal process rather than a course of events (Lombard & Proctor, 2023) which can also be enacted through agencies, institutions, and systems. We argue that professionals can inadvertently be part of the ‘conducive context’ for coercive control (Kelly, 2007), impeding meaningful attempts to address the devastating and widespread impacts of men’s violence against women.