Experiencing Coercive Control in Female Victims of Dating Violence

Abstract

Background: Dating violence refers to violence occurring between people in an intimate relationship. Forms of dating violence are often categorized into physical, psychological, and sexual violence, and most existing literature has followed this frame. However, few studies have focused on the phenomenon of living under the perpetrator's coercive control in victims of dating violence, although those experiences are known to be signs of severe forms of violence later on. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of being coercively controlled in female victims who had experienced dating violence. Method: For this study, in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 14 female victims, and all interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. The data were analyzed using the phenomenological analysis method suggested by Colaizzi. Results: Three themes were derived in chronological order: idealizing the relationship (period of potential control), facing severer tyranny (period of coercive control), and escaping from the unending trap (period of post-control). The results showed that the victims experienced perpetrators' control with specific patterns. The perpetrators' controlling behaviors were invisible, literally benevolent, at the beginning; however, severe forms of violence seemed to appear as their relationship deepened and the perpetrators failed to control the victims. Conclusion: Findings from this study presented vivid experiences of female victims who needed help and care. Hopefully, the results can benefit in terms of developing evidence-based prevention strategies for victims as well as assessing the risks of severe forms of dating violence, such as physical attack or murder.

An integrative literature review on intimate partner violence against women in South Korea

“…Upon quality assessment, all 25 studies on IPV against Korean women analyzed in this study used data of medium or higher (Table 1). The characteristics of the analyzed studies were as follows ( Table 2); fifteen studies (60.0%) were conducted [29] 2019 H, H, H, H Kwak [23] 2018 H, H, M, H You [31] 2018 H, H, H, H Hong [20] 2017 H, H, M, H Kim [19] 2017 H, H, H, H Woo [32] 2017 H, H, H, H Park [41] 2017 H, H, H, H Shon [39] 2016 H, H, M, H Park [24] 2016 H, H, M, H Hong [26] 2015 H, H, M, H Bae [33] 2014 H, H, H, H 2013 H, H, M, H Kim [37] 2013 H, H, M, H Han [36] 2012 H, H, M, H Park [25] 2012 H, H, M, H Hong [40] 2011 H, H, M, H Kim [27] 2010 H, H, H, H Kim [28] 2010 H, H, M, H Kim [18] 2009 H, H, M, H Kim [22] 2009 among married women and 10 studies (40.0%) were conducted among single women. Quantitative studies were the most common (60.0%), of which 12 (48.0%) were descriptive studies.…”

“…The 12 descriptive studies presented research on experiences of IPV [17][18][19], influencing factors [20][21][22][23][24][25], the legal and support system [26,27], and women who relied on the perpetrators of IPV [28]. The nine qualitative studies explored experiences of IPV [29][30][31][32], women's experience of building their identity after IPV [33], experiences of seeking help to overcome IPV [34], and experiences after IPV ended [17,35]. Quantitative studies investigated the level of harm caused by IPV [36], predictors of risk [37], the relationship of IPV with depression [38], and gender awareness and self-assertion [39].…”

“…Among the major variables used in IPV studies were demographic and sociological characteristics related to marital status and household income [22,28,38], stereotypes such as dating violence beliefs or tolerance [17,24,25,36,39], and sexual self-assertion related to perceptions of violence against women [23,25,39]. In addition, studies on coping [29,31,32,34] and the coping process [31,32,35] were conducted in studies dealing with post-IPV experiences. Women's experiences of spousal violence were closely related to their experiences of parental verbal violence in childhood [18] and subsequently were associated with women's depres-sion, stress, and diminished self-esteem.…”

“…Some of the studies [24,25,29,32,41] regarding dating violence showed that gender stereotypes and sexual self-assertion [17], [19], [20], [21], [23], [25], [27], [29], [31], [32], [34][35][36], [39], [41] Married women 10 (40.0) [18], [22], [24], [26], [28], [30], [32], [33], [38], [ [18], [22], [27], [28] 2011-2015 10 (40.0) [17], [21], [25], [26], [30], [33], [37], [38], [40] 2016 and beyond 11 (44.0) [19], [20], [23], [24], [29], [31], [32], …”

“…Less than 100 13 (52.0) [17], [29], [20], [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], [40], [ [18], [20], [24], [26], [28], [30], [33], [40] Dating violence 10 (40.0) [17], [21], [22], [29], [31], [32], [34], [35], [39], [41] Factors affecting violence 7 (28.0) [19], [23], [25], [27], [36], [37], [38]…”