Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life

by Evan Stark

Overview

One of the most important books ever written on domestic violence, Coercive Control breaks through entrenched views of physical abuse that have ultimately failed to protect women. Evan Stark, founder of one of America's first battered women's shelters, shows how "domestic violence" is neither primarily domestic nor necessarily violent, but a pattern of controlling behaviors more akin to terrorism and hostage-taking. Drawing on court records, interviews, and FBI statistics, Stark details coercive strategies that men use to deny women their very personhood, from "beeper games" to food logs to micromanaging dress, speech, sexual activity, and work. Stark urges us to move beyond the injury model and focus on the real victimization that allows men to violate women's human rights with impunity. Provocative and brilliantly argued, Coercive Control reframes abuse as a liberty crime rather than a crime of assault and points the way to bringing "real" equality for women in line with their formal rights to personhood and citizenship, freedom and safety.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190288525
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/16/2007
Series:	Interpersonal Violence
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Evan Stark is an award-winning researcher and has served as an expert in over l00 cases involving battered women and their children. He teaches at the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration and Chairs the Department of Urban Health Administration at the UMDNJ School of Public Health. With Dr. Anne Flitcraft he is the coauthor of Women at Risk: Domestic Violence and Women's Health. He lives in Woodbridge, Connecticutt.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I The Domestic Violence Revolution: Promise and Disappointment

1 The Revolution Unfolds 21

2 The Revolution Stalled 50

II The Enigmas of Abuse

3 The Proper Measure of Abuse 83

4 The Entrapment Enigma 112

5 Representing Battered Women 133

III From Domestic Violence to Coercive Control

6 Up to Inequality 171

7 The Theory of Coercive Control 198

8 The Technology of Coercive Control 228

IV Living with Coercive Control

9 When Battered Women Kill 291

10 For Love or Money 314

11 The special Reasonableness of Battered Women 339

Conclusion: Freedom Is Not Free 362

Notes 402

Index 441

Editorial Reviews

"Evan Stark's brilliant book will transform our understanding of violence against women and place the anti-abuse campaign squarely in the center of the feminist revolution and the movement for universal human rights. In Stark's new paradigm, we see that physical violence is only the tip of an iceberg of intimidation, isolation, and deprivation of daily necessities that amounts to a denial to women of personhood and full citizenship. Every human rights theorist, advocate, and jurist needs to read this landmark volume and use it to reinvigorate the movement toward true equality for women. If every law enforcement officer, shelter provider, social worker, and legislator would also read the stories Stark tells about women's everyday struggles in hostage-like relationships, society's approach to the abuse of women would be immeasurably strengthened."— Heidi Hartmann, Institute for Women's Policy Research and the George Washington University

"Evan Stark has written a momentous work conceptualizing abuse of women by their intimate partners as a major human rights violation. Dr. Stark has explicated the concrete deprivations and structural restraints which are the daily realities of women who have abusive intimate partners. He shows how these abuses create hostage-like living conditions and constrain women's ability to function as fully free citizens in society. Coercive Control is essential reading for everyone in the mental health and legal professions who treat and represent women. It will help us grasp the oppression suffered by women who may not have visible, physical injuries so that we may help them achieve safety and freedom."— Marjory D. Fields, J.D., family law and human rights lawyer in private practice and retired Justice, New York State Supreme and Family Courts

"Coercive Control is compelling in the way it frames woman-battering as a web of coercive controls and enforcement. Evan Stark provides a rich history of the refuge/shelter movement and a powerful critique of the criminal legal system. This pathbreaking exploration of the entrapment of women in intimate partnerships, with its important exploration of social context and critical focus on male social and economic privilege, is a must reada crucial addition to the literature."— Barbara J. Hart, Senior Policy and Legal Advisor, Battered Women's Justice Project

"Starks book vividly and unforgettably describes the many ways that men subjugate and entrap women...Coercive Control is one of the most important books ever written about domestic violence and one that should be widely read by advocates, policymakers, and academics."—Domestic Violence Report

"This is a hopeful book. It ends with a call to action through engagement with the law, rather than a retreat in the face of disappointing results of our efforts.[It is unique in the comprehensiveness of its critique, and in the depth and utility of [Starks] recommendations for a direction for the future. If it is as widely read as it deserves to be, it is sure to have a major impact."—Sex Roles

"Evan Stark broadens our understanding of violence against women as a major human rights violation. Scholars, law enforcement officers, shelter providers, social workers, and legal professionals interested in improving societys approach to dealing with the abuse of women should examine this work.[It] provides a persuasive argument as to why physical violence is only one dimension of the complex political issues that are played out in the context of interpersonal relationships characterized as abusive. In addition, the theoretical argument makes an important connection to compelling empirical evidence to permit the analysis of the social context of the entrapment of women and the male social and economic privilege that results."—Journal of Public Management and Social Policy

"The mix of research, case material and the author's compelling perspective make the book very readable and engaging. The book encapsulates core themes and provides a model that facilitates a great understanding of the interpersonal processes involved."—The Psychologist

"...a book of tremendous import to anyone working with the issue of domestic violence...Coercive Control is a sweeping, compelling and meticulously detailed argument...If, as Stark suggests, the domestic violence field is on the verge of a Kuhnian revolution, this book is the bugle blast."—Sex Roles

"Every attorney who represents clients in family law courts should read this book."—Wisconsin Lawyer

"One review cannot do justice to such a big book, which was 10 years in the making. This ambitious book fills a much-needed gap in the literature by bringing together important pieces of early research, historical aspects of the domestic violence movement, recent research, and case insights from the authors 30-year history of clinical and forensic work. Regardless of whether readers agree or disagree with Stark's contentions or agree only in part, we guarantee they will not ever be bored. It is hoped that this book will be widely read and discussed and its major points incorporated into our daily work. In essence, this book should serve as a catalyst to reinvigorate the domestic violence movement."—Violence Against Women

From the Publisher