The Vermont House of Representatives passes groundbreaking the H.27 Bill to combat coercive control and protect survivors.
Coercive Control
Coercive control is a sustained pattern of behavior used by one person to dominate, subjugate, and trap another. It is not a single incident — it is a campaign, unfolding over months or years through isolation, surveillance, financial restriction, gaslighting, degradation, and the systematic erosion of the targeted person’s autonomy, identity, and sense of what is real.
The term was developed by forensic social worker Dr. Evan Stark, who described it as a liberty crime — an offense not primarily against the body but against personhood itself. In many jurisdictions it is now recognized in law. In the UK, coercive and controlling behavior has been a criminal offense since 2015. In Australia, New South Wales introduced a standalone coercive control offense in 2024. In the United States, Hawaii and Connecticut have enacted coercive control legislation, with additional states advancing bills.
Narcissistic Abuse Rehab maintains the Global Coercive Control Legislation Index — the first systematic index of its kind on the web — as a reference for survivors, advocates, legal professionals, and policymakers navigating this landscape.
Content tagged here covers the full spectrum of coercive control: its tactics and mechanisms, its neurological and psychological consequences, the legal frameworks designed to address it, its relationship to femicide and intimate partner homicide, and the recovery frameworks that support genuine healing. For the most comprehensive overview, see the Definitive Guide to Coercive Control.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passes legislation to criminalize revenge porn and coercive control.
Manslaughter by coercive control is the legal recognition that perpetrators can be held responsible when abuse drives a victim to suicide.
In Episode 21 of the Narcissistic Abuse Rehab Podcast, we delve into the topic ‘Julie Levine: A Coercive Control Advocate Battles A Rare Form of Cancer,’ and the disturbing similarities between Julie and Catherine Kassenoff’s experiences of coercive control, child custody in the Westchester Family Court, and adverse health outcomes. Like Catherine, Julie has allegedly suffered from years of cruel post-separation abuse from…
Coercive control survivor and advocate Julie Levine is battling a rare blood cancer and she needs our support.
Sandra L. Brown analyzes how the rejected theory of Parental Alienation Syndrome because big business in the family court system.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and divorce coach Amy Polacko joins us to unpack the alleged post-separation abuse of Catherine Kassenoff.
Legal experts Derek Jacques and Samantha Drum weigh in on how to prove narcissistic abuse in a court of law.
‘The Young and the Restless’ is at the forefront of raising awareness about coercive control on daytime television.
Counter-parenting is a coercive control tactic that’s a common aspect of post-separation abuse in narcissistic family dynamics.