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Category: Project

Description: Johnson (1995) argued that coercive control is crucial in explaining heterogeneity in intimate partner violence, with such violence being more frequent, less reciprocal, and more often male-to-female aggression when it serves to exercise control over the partner. We assessed 217 Dutch forensic outpatients who had engaged in intimate partner violence in the 8 weeks prior to intake on non-aggressive coercive control. The vast majority of the sample (80%) consisted of men, and men also engaged most often in controlling violence, yet women can also engage in controlling violence. Non-violent coercive controlling behaviors were related to more frequent and less reciprocal intimate partner violence. The size of the associations between control and intimate partner violence, were, however, small to moderate and did not out pass that of other risk factors – antisocial or borderline personality disorder traits. Overall, while perhaps not having unique predictive power, our findings support the role of coercive control in intimate partner violence.