This brief discussion will offer an overview of coercive control drawing upon the conceptual frameworks offered by the world’s leading scholars and academics, primarily from the English language speaking world. In this overview we will identify the essential elements of coercive control and in doing so point out the similarities to the Lei da Maria da Penha, as well as key differences. While this discussion will draw upon a wide range of highly regarded scholars and researchers, extensive quotes will be offered from the work of United Kingdom scholar and researcher, Dr. Emma Katz (2022a), as she is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on Coercive Control.
Coercive Control can be understood as a sequenced, multi-phased, assault, that relies on a wide array of tactics to exert power-over and control-of a selected target to ultimately dominate and subjugate the victim/survivor (L. Fontes, 2015, 2017, 2019; J. Herman, 1992; E. Katz, 2022a, 2022b; D. Shaw, 2014; E. Stark, 2007; E. Stark & M. Hester, 2019). The dynamics of this abuse pattern are such that the fact that the victim is being abused may appear obscured by the tactics of abuse to both others, such as family and friends, and even to the victims themselves (L. Fontes, 2019; R. Hogan, 2022). In the context of relational and domestic abuse, Coercive Control typically begins with an emotional or sexual seduction that some have referred to as grooming or ‘love-bombing’ (L. Fontes, 2019; E. Katz, 2022b). Through this deception a selected target is induced to believe that they are cherished, adored, and beloved (E. Katz, 2022b). In this manner, this particular pattern of domestic abuse bears conceptual similarity to the financial crime and “golpe de amor” of Estelionato Sentimental, in which a victim is made to feel adored only in service of eventually being financially exploited (C. Neves, 2020).
The tactics of abuse utilized in a campaign of coercive control include psychological, financial, sexual, reproductive, child, legal, post-separation and physical abuse (L. Fontes, 2015; E. Katz, 2022a). In this regard the conceptual framework bears resemblance to that proposed by the Lei da Maria da Penha (Lei 11.340/06) which condemns physical, psychological, sexual, patrimonial and moral abuse. The conceptual framework of coercive control will underscore that to be considered coercive control the perpetrator’s behavior will reflect a pervasive pattern of extensive control and that there exists a credible threat of punishment, creating a dynamic of abuse that induces the victim/survivor to become obedient, compliant, if not subservient, in time (E. Katz, 2022a). The principal tactics of abuse are psychological in nature, induce psychological erosion in the victim/survivor, and create and exploit personal and structural vulnerabilities (E. Katz, 2022a; E. Stark, 2007). Not all tactics of abuse are always utilized and while physical violence may be present, it is not always, and sometimes may be the last type of abuse utilized prompting a victim/survivor to leave the abusive situation (R. Hogan, 2022; E. Katz, 2022a). Leading experts on Coercive Control, such as Dr. Lisa Aranson Fontes (2015) in her book Invisible Chains: Overcoming Coercive Control in Your Intimate Relationship and Dr. Emma Katz (2022a) in her book, Coercive Control in Children’s and Mother’s Lives, assert that in this type of violence, while typically perpetrated by cis-gendered, heterosexual men towards women, people of all sexual and gender identities can be both perpetrator and victim (see C. Donovan & M. Hester, 2014; E. Stark & M. Hester, 2019).
As with the financial crime and “golpe de amor” of Estelionato Sentimental, an essential building block for future tactics of abuse includes a deception that induces in the selected target the experience of feeling cherished and adored; it is not unusual for the perpetrator to refer to the victim as a ‘soul-mate’ or in Brasilian portuguese, an ‘alma-gemea’ (L. Fontes, 2019; E. Katz, 2022a, 2022b). This seduction over an extended period of time induces what is referred to as a trauma bond, or a neurochemical and psychological hyper-attachment to the abuser, which is sometimes referred to as the Stockholm syndrome (P. Carnes, 2017; S. Stines, 2018). The feelings engendered as a result serve to confuse the victim, leaving them feeling over-attached and holding onto the false hope that the ‘relationship’ might improve, once the escalating tactics of abuse have caused in the victim an increased sense of distress (E. Katz, 2022b). This amorous seduction also serves to obscure the red flags and warning signs (L. Fontes, 2017), such as unreasonable requests that lead to premature financial entanglement (E. Katz, 2022a) or the subtle erosion of personal boundaries (L. Fontes, 2015).
While often discussed in the literature as ‘psychological’ abuse, what we think of as psychological is better understood as psychophysiological (D. Godfrey et al, 2020). That is to say that tactics of psychological abuse, including isolation, cruel indifference, the silent treatment, denigration, humiliation, shaming, gaslighting, manipulation, threats, intimidations, and rageful yelling (L. Fontes, 2015; E. Katz, 2022a), all have biological correlates as neuroscience indicates that they impact brain functioning (D. Godfrey et al, 2020; H. Rosenthal, 2019). Not only are the chains that bind the victim to the perpetrator invisible (L. Fontes, 2015), but unlike those of physical abuse, the bruises of psychological abuse are invisible as well (D. Godfrey et al, 2020; H. Rosenthal, 2019). Additionally, the alternating pattern of intermittent reward with intermittent cruelty or punishment, serves to strengthen the trauma bond or Stockholm syndrome (P. Carnes, 2017; S.Stines, 2018). These tactics of abuse leave a victim/survivor in a steady state of anxiety and dread, and a feeling that one is ‘walking on eggshells’ (L.Fontes, 2015; E. Katz, 2022a).
Let’s turn our attention to the rich description of the tactics of emotional and psychological abuse as described by Dr. Emma Katz (2022a), which she describes as: “including screaming, belittling, mocking, insulting, humiliating, interrogating, and being contemptuous; using a combination of affection, good times, emotional coldness, and emotional cruelty as part of a system of reward and punishment to habituate the victim/survivor to behave and feel as the perpetrator wishes; sometimes apologizing and making promises to change in order to create false hope in the victim/survivor; denying, minimizing, and blaming other people for their own abusive behavior; undermining the victim’s/survivor’s confidence, self-esteem, and sense of self-efficacy by continually commenting on their “faults”; gaslighting the victim/survivor by encouraging them to think that they are mentally ill or encouraging them to doubt their own memory and perceptions of reality; …using abuse to make the victim/survivor highly dependent on them and then threatening to permanently separate from/be unfaithful to them; making threats to remove children or pets from the victim/survivor if they defy coercive control; …manipulating feelings of empathy, guilt, connection, and responsibility, that the victim/survivor has for them, and their wish to try to help/heal then in order to coerce the victim/survivor into acting against their own best interests; …and creating states of terror, constant worry, and hyper-vigilance, shame and self-blame, emotional exhaustion, emotional desperation, and mental ill health in victims/survivors through sustained abuse actions (E. Katz, pp. 3-4).
These tactics of abuse are calibrated to the profile of the victim and are meant to control, punish, instill fear, as well as diminish self-worth, personal agency, and psychological competency (E. Katz, 2022a). Once more an essential characteristic of coercive control is what we might consider a “credible threat” (E. Katz, 2022a). Dr. Katz notes that, “it will be clear to the victim/survivor (either implicitly, by his past words or actions, or explicitly by him having stated what he will do) that if they disobey, he will punish them with a negative reaction that they fear, dread, or find profoundly upsetting…He will have established at an early stage of his coercive control that he is willing and capable of carrying out his threats…The perpetrator’s negative reaction is not necessarily a dramatic act of violence; it could be a less dramatic act, for example, withdrawal of affection for a period of time…The victim/survivor will be aware of the continual presence of this threat (victims/survivors often report that they “just knew” what would happen if they disobeyed or failed to please the perpetrator); and so the will feel that they have to be extremely and constantly careful with what they say and do (“walking on eggshells”) (E. Katz, 2022, p.12-13). The existence of credible threat combined with an expansive breadth and depth of control “causes a victim/survivor to exist in a state of chronic fear and anxiety…Fear of conflicting with the perpetrator’s wishes will therefore usually keep the victim/survivor in a state of long-term dread and compliance” (E. Katz, 2022, p. 14).
The ongoing psychological distress can also lead to emotional dysregulation and PTSD like symptoms in the victim (D. Godfrey et al, 2020, J. Herman, 1992; M. Munoz-Rivas et al, 2021; H. Rosenthal, 2019); sometimes leading to increased suicidality and suicide attempts, referred to as homicide by proxy and forced suicide, recognized in France as a crime (J. Monckton-Smith, 2021; Y. Roberts, 2022). It is not uncommon for victims to report feeling like they were reduced to a shadow of their former selves (L. Fontes, 2015).
The pattern of coercive control behaviors typically includes a wide range of financial and economic abuses that are employed to both exploit and entrap (L. Fontes, 2015; E. Katz, 2022a; Stark, 2007; Surviving Economic Abuse dot Org, 2022). The perpetrator may exert control by holding assets only in their name or monitor, manage, and exert control over bank accounts (Surviving Economic Abuse dot Org, 2022). As Dr. Katz (2022) observes, another tactic employed in coercive control is “economic abuse, including interfering with the victim’s/survivor’s employment, business, or schooling; unfairly appropriating some or all of the victim’s/survivor’s income, assets or savings…(p.5). In this regard, coercive control serves as a further conceptual framework to explain the extended time-frame of a long-term estelionato sentimental in the context of a “marriage” or long-term “relationship”, in our opinion.
As with all attacks disguised as love (golpes de amor), the assault is stealthy. Not only is the abuse, as it is disguised as love, likely to go unnoticed by the victim (L. Fontes, 2015; E. Katz, 2022b; R. Hogan, 2022; C. Neves, 2020), it is likely to go unnoticed by friends and family (L. Fontes, 2019). As Dr. Lisa Aranson Fontes (2019) observes, “ abusers strategically act charming and helpful to others so that these individuals cannot imagine the cruel acts occurring behind closed doors”.
The stealthy nature of the abuse pattern is underscored by the oft absence of physical violence. As Richard Hogan (2022) notes, physical violence is often the last weapon used in coercive control, as it is this obvious act of abuse that alerts the victim to the fact that they are being abused. As Dr. Emma Katz (2022a) observes, while physical abuse may or may not be employed by the perpetrator, at times when it is used as a tactic it is used toward psychological affect to frighten or intimidate the victim, “to scare them into compliance” (p. 17) not simply or necessarily to hurt.
The combined array of tactics of abuse employed, along with the creation and exploitation of personal and structural vulnerabilities leads to both a psychological and a structural entrapment (E. Katz, 2022a; E. Stark, 2007). As Richard Hogan (2022) observes, this sense of entrapment renders a victim to question their own ability to survive without the perpetrator and leads them simultaneously dreading to remain but feeling that it is impossible to leave the abusive situation.
The revered sociologist and coercive control researcher and expert, Dr. Evan Stark (2007), has rightly referred to coercive control as a liberty crime as it reduces a victim’s capacity for autonomy, personal agency, and individual freedoms. Of note, Coercive Control, as with the same types of violences condemned by the Lei da Maria da Penha (11.340/06), is a punishable offense according to several principles enshrined in the Brasilian Federal Constitution, chief amongst them the obligation of the Brasilian Federal Government to protect citizens and legal permanent residents in the context of family life as established in article 5, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, as expressed in the passage of law that criminalizes homo-trans-phobia equal to racism (see ADO 26 and MI 4733, P. Iotti, 2022). The United Nations (2022) relates the pain and suffering caused by this and other types of domestic violence to that caused by psychological torture and other forms of cruel and degrading treatment. While the essential elements of Coercive Control are robustly addressed in the Lei da Maria da Penha, some countries, such as Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland have enacted additional domestic abuse legislation specific to this type of domestic abuse (E. Guy, 2022).
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