Domestic Violence Needs Coercive and Controlling Behavior – Incumbent, Futile Laws Fail to Capture its Horrors

The distinctive nature of domestic abuse as an offence and a socio- legal issue poses several challenges that makes it difficult to legislate on. The article grapples with the question of whether due to its distinctive nature the new offence of coercive control is necessary to properly understand and prevent domestic violence. The article aims to demonstrate this through comparisons with prior existing acts like the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 which were used to tackle domestic violence earlier.