In 2015, England and Wales became only the second jurisdiction to criminalise ‘controlling or coercive behaviour’. The criminalisation of coercive control – defined by a course of abusive conduct rather than an episode of violence – was not roundly supported by domestic abuse advocates and researchers. They were sceptical about the ability of the criminal justice system to identify, investigate and prosecute the offence. As many other jurisdictions consider whether to criminalise coercive control, there are important lessons to be learned from our experience in England and Wales.
In this seminar, Professor Iain Brennan will describe the concept of coercive control and show why it is such a challenging issue for the criminal justice system. Using data obtained through freedom of information requests and aggregated police records, Professor Brennan will show the patterns in crimes, arrests and outcomes of coercive control across police forces since the inception of the legislation. He will also describe a pre-registered evaluation of a training programme designed to improve police understanding of gender-based violence and to increase use of coercive control powers. The talk will conclude with a summary of the lessons learned and how these can inform the criminalisation of coercive control across the world.
Speaker Biography
Iain Brennan is a Professor of Criminology at University of Hull where he has worked since 2010. Prior to this, he completed a PhD and three years postdoctoral research at Cardiff University. His research focuses on several aspects of interpersonal violence including weapon-carrying and community violence, domestic abuse and multi-agency violence prevention. Iain is the founder and academic lead for the Humberside Police-Academic Collaboration and a member of the Youth Endowment Fund Expert Panel.
When: 12-1pm, 22nd June 2021
Where: This event will be held on Zoom. To register, follow this link. Once you have registered, you will be sent the link and passcode to access the call.
Contact: [email protected]