Evan Stark, Coercive Control—Revitalizing a Movement

摘要

In Coercive Control, a book of tremendous import toanyone working with the issue of domestic violence, EvanStark does not introduce entirely new ideas. Instead, heamplifies and expands what has long been understood ascentral to the experience of abuse in personal relationships,but over time has been marginalized in our work and in ourthinking. The domestic violence revolution transformedsociety's standards for acceptable behavior in relationships.But its focus on physical violence, born of its effectivenessin drawing attention and resources, has taken us away fromwomen's true experience of which bodily injury is only onepiece. The evolution of research, theory, intervention andadvocacy has been tied to this focus on physical violence,and has led to the current state of affairs: the revolution is"stalled," and efforts in all spheres that are meant to stopviolence against women do not fit the majority of victims,and do not address the true scope of the social problem.