What is it about?
Police officers who investigate cases of intimate partner violence routinely describe the physical violence, but do they also document coercive control? We tested whether researchers could independently detect and agree on the presence of coercive, controlling behaviours as described in police reports. Reliability was best when focusing on specific behaviours rather than trying to categorize them into types of coercive control.
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Why is it important?
Coercive control is often understood in terms of how it affects the partner who is being abused, and assessment has usually relied on self-reports. We showed that it is possible for third-party observers to reliably assess coercive control. This is important for the police response to intimate partner violence, especially where coercive control is a crime.
Perspectives
This is one of the first articles from the CELIA IPV project. Find out more at https://www.celia-ipv-project.ca/
Dr N Zoe Hilton
University of Toronto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Measuring coercive control from police reports of intimate partner violence, Journal of Criminal Justice, July 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102442.
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