Criminalizing coercive control

In this chapter, the different ways in which the criminal law has been invoked as a space in which to respond to coercive control are considered. These strategies comprising looking for a role for expert testimony, adding coercive control to already existing offences, alongside considering coercive control as a specific offence and/or defence for criminal behaviour are examined through the lens of the criminalization thesis associated with the work of Goodmark (2018). The chapter both reconnects with concerns addressed in earlier chapters in reflection on understandings of coercion in the criminal law and also concludes by considering the implications of the absence of victim-survivor voices in these debates and the unintended consequences of their absence.