ABSTRACT
The process of defining and differentiating domestic violence (DV), domestic abuse, and intimate partner violence (IPV) is explained, especially as it relates to the ongoing continuum of abuse deployed through non-physical violence. In conjunction with the difficulty in defining these terms, the difficulty in legislating against the acts that these terms seek to identify is discussed to help explain why discrete and insular acts of physical violence are more regulated as opposed to the non-violent tactics of coercive control. The Domestic Abuse Intervention Program's Power and Control Wheel and The Maze of Coercive Control: The (New!) Recreated Power & Control Wheel are introduced as visual tools to help in understanding the complexities of IPV and coercive control, especially the confusing and overwhelming aspects of the non-violent tactics of coercive control its victim lives with daily. The gender aspects of IPV are introduced, such as gender asymmetry and the notion that IPV is usually perpetrated by the male in the intimate partner relationship.
