ABSTRACT
Domestic abuse and coercive control do not necessarily stop when partners separate. Many victims/survivors are subjected to persistent post-separation violence/coercive control over significant periods of time. Katz's research on coercive control-based domestic abuse and its impacts on mothers and children can provide important insights into how children can experience post-separation abuse and coercive control. The nature of domestic abuse is such that families appear to encounter one serious crisis after another. The “incident-led response” is usually driven by “blue-light” crises. The incident-led response can result in short-term intervention being employed to tackle the immediate risk at the expense of the longer-term outcome. Short-term crisis management can make it difficult for professionals to see the bigger picture and to acknowledge domestic abuse as a continuum of behaviour including the impact of coercive control. It is important that safety planning is not viewed as a one-off crisis response activity with a child but a trauma-responsive continuous intervention.
