Citation

Walklate S, Fitz-Gibbon K, McCulloch J. Criminol. Crim. Justice 2018; 18(1): 115-131.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1748895817728561

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In 2015 in England and Wales a new offence of controlling or coercive behaviour was introduced with the aim of improving legal responses to intimate partner violence. Recognizing the historical limits of legal interventions in this area, this article examines the efficacy of coercive control as a conceptual device for improving access to law and justice outcomes for women victims. To do so, it considers the problems and possibilities of translating a concept generated from clinical practice into legal practice alongside an exploration of the potential unintended consequences of this new offence. The gendered analysis undertaken here reveals the limitations of framing women's experiences as 'coercive control' in law and concludes that, in the case of coercive control, more law is not the answer to improving responses to intimate partner violence.

Language: en