TY  - SER
AU  - Stark, Evan
TI  - Re-presenting battered women: coercive control and the defense of liberty
PY  - 2012///
KW  - RECOMMENDED READING
KW  - COERCIVE CONTROL
KW  - DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
KW  - EMOTIONAL ABUSE
KW  - HUMAN RIGHTS
KW  - INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
KW  - JUSTICE
KW  - UNITED STATES
N1  - Unpublished paper prepared for Violence Against Women : Complex Realities and New Issues in a Changing World,  Les 
Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2012; Recommended reading
N2  -  Throughout the world, with a few exceptions, the legal and policy responses  to domestic violence are typically built on a violence model that equates partner abuse with discrete assaults or threats. Implicit in this response is the assumption that the severity of domestic violence can be assessed by applying a calculus of physical and psychological harms to particular assaults.  Based on this model, programs focus only on victims’ immediate safety.  Laws target violent acts; batterer intervention programs (BIPs) seek to “end the violence;” public education campaigns highlight dramatic injuries or fatalities; and child welfare agencies emphasise how children are harmed by “exposure to violence.” Assessment instruments designed to predict “dangerousness” consider few abusive tactics other than physical and sexual violence. This paper argues that reliance on the violence model limits the efficacy of current interventions because it masks the scope of most partner abuse and minimises the harms it causes. Adopting the coercive control model would broaden our understanding of partner abuse to more closely resemble what most victims are experiencing and so greatly improve intervention. The discussion is divided into three parts. Part I identifies the shortcomings of the violence model as the exclusive framework for responding to partner abuse. Part II outlines the alternative model of coercive control, cites evidence from the US and England to document the relative prevalence of its various components  and shows that the presence of control’ tactics predicts a range of harms, including sexual, physical and fatal violence, far better than prior assault. Part III addresses some implications of adapting a coercive control for improved intervention. The priority on ‘safety’ is complemented with an emphasis on liberty, autonomy, dignity and equality. (From the abstract). Record #5001
UR  - http://www.stopvaw.org/uploads/evan_stark_article_final_100812.pdf
ER  -