Long Journeys Toward Freedom: The Relationship Between Coercive Control and Space for Action—Measurement and Emerging Evidence

Sharp-Jeffs, Nicola; Kelly, Liz; Klein, Renate

doi:10.1177/1077801216686199

Cited by 49 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…But it contracted thereafter, as their struggles resumed, with the offending partners still at large. Sharp-Jeffs, Kelly, and Klein (2018) reported,Removing themselves from the immediate control of an abusive man was . .…”

Section: The Adaptation Of Coercive Control In Criminal Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coercive Control: Update and Review

Stark

Hester

2018

Violence Against Women

256

170

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This article reviews the background, introduction and critical response to new criminal offenses of coercive control in England/Wales and Scotland. How the new Scottish offense is implemented will determine whether it can overcome the shortcomings of the English law. Next, we review new evidence on four dimensions of coercive control: the relationship between 'control' and violence;' coercive control in same sex couples; measuring coercive control; and children's experience of coercive control. Coercive control is not a type of violence. Indeed, level of control predicts range of negative outcomes heretofore associated with physical abuse, including post-separation violence and sexual assault; important differences in coercive control In December 2009, VAW published a Special Issue 'Focusing on Evan Stark's Coercive Control" Since then, advocacy-driven public law making based on coercive control and the critical response has spun far ahead of evidence-based research building or testing the model. This article describes this process, considers the implications of recent research for conceptualizing and measuring the construct and applies coercive control to new research on violence in same sex couples and the coercive control of children. Critical scrutiny of the ways in which the law responds to partner abuse continues to animate academic, legislative and policy debate internationally (

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Section: The Adaptation Of Coercive Control In Criminal Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coercive Control: Update and Review

Stark

Hester

2018

Violence Against Women

256

170

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“…The role of children as both a catalyst for action and a reason to endure or compromise resonates with findings from Sharp-Jeffs et al (2017). They found that, while children could be used to control women, victim-survivors often had greater space for action in the domain of parenting.…”

Section: Finance Work and Motheringmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…'Space for action' is a concept developed by Sharp-Jeffs, et al, in their 2017 article 'Long journeys toward freedom: The relationship between coercive control and space for action-measurement and emerging evidence' (building on Kelly, 2003). The 'space for action' model evaluates the ways in which the entrapment, surveillance, and restriction that are characteristic of coercive control significantly inhibit women's freedom by explicitly and implicitly curbing their behaviour (Sharp-Jeffs et al, 2017). This is of particular importance in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, where the primary mechanism to prevent transmission is to create space via physical distancing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of rurality on women's 'space for action' in domestic violence: Findings from a meta-synthesis

Farhall¹,

Harris²,

Woodlock³

2020

International Journal of Rural Criminology

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Men's violence against women is a global human rights issue, with domestic violence one of the most common forms (World Health Organization, 2017). The consequences of domestic violence include detrimental effects on victim-survivors' health, well-being, and sense of safety. To understand these impacts, the concept of 'space for action' seeks to evaluate how perpetrators of domestic violence narrow women's life choices, constraining their freedom (Kelly, 2003). In this article, we build upon the concept of 'space for action' by examining if, and how, rural geographical space and place can be used by perpetrators to constrict women's options for escape, or even shape the violence itself. In conducting a meta-synthesis of 32 global studies, we found similarities in rural women's experiences of violence. Perpetrators used both geographical space and rural social norms to constrain women's space for action. In particular, geographical and social isolation were used to hold women in literal captivity. Rural communities were often experienced as shaming and ostracizing. This provided women with few opportunities to help-seek and aided perpetrators in reducing women's spaces for safety. Women's space for action was also curtailed in the realms of finance, employment, and their ability to care for their children. These findings demonstrate that geographical place and space can be used by perpetrators to narrow and limit women's space for action. As such, rurality should be included in understanding how men's violence limits women's freedoms.

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“…This concept was used by Lundgren to capture how the motivations of men who are violent towards their partners are, in part, based on a desire to set limits on women's ability to exercise their freedom. The life space of women is decreased as a way of increasing the life space of the men who were violent towards them, a claim empirically tested in a recent paper by Sharp-Jeffs, Kelly, and Klein (2017). The concept was developed into the notion of space for action by Jeffner (2000) in her exploration of young people's understandings of rape, and by Kelly (2003) in relation to trafficking for sexual exploitation.…”

Section: Embodied Space For Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outlook: Girlhood, Agency, and Embodied Space for Action

Vera-Gray

2017

Nordic Girlhoods

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The sexual double standard and the realities of sexual violence have a significant impact on the embodied freedoms of girls and young women. The chapters in this collection that explore the experiences of girls in the Nordic region in relation to sexual harassment (Aaltonen) and sexuality education (Honkasalo) reveal the ongoing challenges for feminists seeking to conceptualize the ambiguity of girls' agency, particularly sexual agency, as it is lived. Here I explore the possible benefits of the concepts of embodied space for action and situated agency, alongside the need for a perspective that pays attention to how a hierarchy of worth situates girls in relation to each other.

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Long Journeys Toward Freedom: The Relationship Between Coercive Control and Space for Action—Measurement and Emerging Evidence

Cited by 49 publications

References 10 publications

Coercive Control: Update and Review

Coercive Control: Update and Review

The impact of rurality on women's 'space for action' in domestic violence: Findings from a meta-synthesis

Outlook: Girlhood, Agency, and Embodied Space for Action

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