The battle against domestic violence has focused primarily on incidents of extreme physical abuse and the resulting trauma to the victim. While there is a growing understanding of some forms of psychological abuse, such as stalking, there is less understanding of the pattern of abuse where physical attacks are combined with isolation, intimidation, and control. Stark argues that coercive control, which may not include any physical abuse, is actually the more prevalent and devastating form of domestic abuse, yet remains largely invisible to the helping professionals and has no legal standing. He contends that interventions are ineffective for a large number of battered women due to the gap between what these women experience and the singular emphasis on male violence and victim trauma. Drawing extensively on case studies, Stark identifies the problems with our current approach to domestic violence, outlines the components of coercive control, and then uses this alternate framework to analyse the cases of battered women charged with criminal offenses directed at their abusers. He presents the controversial notion that coercive control should be a legal defense for women who attack or kill their abusers.
