Coercive Control

26.The following list outlines behaviours that are within the range of controlling or coercive behaviour. This list is not exhaustive.

Physical violence, and threats of physical violence;
Sexual assault, coercion or abuse, and threats of sexual assault;
Emotional and psychological abuse;
Abuse relating to faith;
Verbal abuse;
Economic abuse (e.g. coerced debt, controlling spending/bank accounts/investments/mortgages/benefit payments);
Controlling or monitoring the victim’s daily activities and behaviour, for example making them account for their time, dictating what they can wear, what and when they can eat, when and where they may sleep, who they meet or talk to, where they may work, restricting access to training/development etc;
Controlling and monitoring the victim’s access to social media and devices (e.g. restricting and checking phone use, needing to know passwords for all social media accounts, location tracking on devices);
Acts of coercion or force to persuade the victim to do something that they are unwilling to do;
Threats to expose sensitive information (e.g. sexual activity, sexual orientation and/or transgender identity), or make false allegations to family members, friends, work colleagues, community or others, including via photos or the internet;
Preventing the victim from learning a language or making friends outside of their ethnic/ or cultural background;
Intimidation and threats of disclosure of health status or an impairment to family, friends, work colleagues and wider community – particularly where this may carry a stigma in the community;
Using the victim’s health status to induce fear and restrict their freedom of movement;
Using immigration status to threaten the victim;
Threats of being placed in an institution against the victim’s will, e.g. care home, supported living facility, mental health facility, etc (particularly for disabled or elderly victims);
Making and enforcing rules and regulations that the victim is expected to follow;
Intentional undermining of the victim;
Isolating the victim from family, friends, colleagues and professionals who may be trying to support them, intercepting messages or phone calls;
Refusing to interpret, and/or hindering access to communication;
Preventing the victim from taking medication, or accessing medical equipment or over-medicating them, or preventing the victim from accessing health or social care (especially relevant for victims with disabilities or long-term health conditions);
Reproductive coercion, including restricting a victim’s access to birth control; refusing to use a birth control method; forcing a victim to get an abortion, to undergo in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or other procedure; or denying access to such a procedure;
Using substances such as alcohol or drugs to control a victim through dependency, or controlling their access to substances;
Using children to control the victim, e.g. threatening to take the children away, threatening to harm the children
Using pets to control or coerce a victim, e.g. harming, or threatening to harm or give away pets;
Using a victim’s workplace to control them, e.g. denying access to work, dictating where they work, turning up at work etc; and
Preventing normal leisure activities such as volunteering, joining local clubs and groups, sports teams, civil/charitable activity, etc.