ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contextualize a 'new definition' of domestic violence as 'coercive control' adopted by the British Home Office in 2012 and the creation by Westminster in 2015 of an offence of 'coercive and controlling behaviour' covering England, Wales and Gibraltar. England is the main focus of the analysis, though touch on developments in Wales, Scotland and elsewhere in Europe. Three contextual factors are described: the growing international consensus that 'gender violence' be defined broadly and as a violation of human rights; the limited utility of an assault model as a way to understand and/or manage partner abuse; and the emergence of coercive control as a credible alternative framework. The violence in coercive control is characterized by the aforementioned pattern of frequent, typically low-level physical abuse punctuated by more severe assaults. If violence raises the physical costs of resistance, intimidation deflates the will to resist or report abuse by instilling fear, dependence, compliance, loyalty and shame.
