Reframing Domestic Abuse: Policing Coercive Control

Domestic Abuse is high volume and often high risk, in the year ending March 2022 representing 17.2% of all crimes reported to police (Office for National Statistics, 2021). Despite its high volume domestic abuse as a crime is often mis-framed by police. This chapter delineates the different ‘types’ of domestic abuse, and shows that the narrative scripts employed by officers often results in much of what makes it harmful to victims being missed. By missing coercive control (which is the most dangerous form of domestic abuse) officers impede their ability to prosecute offenders and to keep victims safe. This chapter will explain coercive control (Wiener, 2023), which in turn shows why victims often become trapped and why they can find it hard to stay engaged with criminal justice process (Edwards, 1991; Harne and Radford, 2008; Myhill, and Johnson, 2016; Robinson,  et al., 2016). Understanding this will allow officers to make better safeguarding decisions and to avoid some of the pit falls that can obstruct a non-control informed approach. Keeping victims of coercive control safe is a challenge: this chapter outlines the interventions officers can use and closes with a list of actions officers should consider when responding to domestic abuse.