Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life (Interpersonal Violence) - Softcover

Stark, Evan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195384040 ISBN 13: 9780195384048

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2009

Synopsis

One of the most important books ever written on domestic violence, Coercive Control breaks through entrenched views of physical abuse that have ultimately failed to protect women. Evan Stark, founder of one of America's first battered women's shelters, shows how "domestic violence" is neither primarily domestic nor necessarily violent, but a pattern of controlling behaviors more akin to terrorism and hostage-taking. Drawing on court records, interviews, and FBI statistics, Stark details coercive strategies that men use to deny women their very personhood, from "beeper games" to food logs to micromanaging dress, speech, sexual activity, and work. Stark urges us to move beyond the injury model and focus on the real victimization that allows men to violate women's human rights with impunity. Provocative and brilliantly argued, Coercive Control reframes abuse as a liberty crime rather than a crime of assault and points the way to bringing "real" equality for women in line with their formal rights to personhood and citizenship, freedom and safety.

About this title

Review

Regardless of whether readers agree or disagree with Stark's contentions or agree only in part, we guarantee they will not ever be bored. It is hoped that this book will be widely read and discussed and its major points incorporated into our daily work. In essence, this book should serve as a catalyst to reinvigorate the domestic violence movement. (Violence Against Women)

...a fascinating new look at how the very question of 'why women stay' has been wrongheaded from the start. (Salon.com)

...a book of tremendous import to anyone working with the issue of domestic violence...Coercive Control is a sweeping, compelling and meticulously detailed argument...If, as Stark suggests, the domestic violence field is on the verge of a Kuhnian revolution, this book is the bugle blast. (Sex Roles)

Coercive Control is one of the most important books ever written about domestic violence and one that should be widely read by advocates, policymakers, and academics. (Domestic Violence Report)

The mix of research, case material and the author's compelling perspective make the book very readable and engaging. (The Psychologist)

About the Author

Evan Stark is an award-winning researcher and has served as an expert in over l00 cases involving battered women and their children. He teaches at the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration and Chairs the Department of Urban Health Administration at the U.M.D.N.J. School of Public Health. With Dr. Anne Flitcraft he is the coauthor of Women at Risk: Domestic Violence and Women's Health. He lives in Woodbridge, Connecticutt.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0195384040
• ISBN 13: 9780195384048
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 452