My PhD will utilise a mixed-methods approach in collaboration with the domestic abuse support organisation Women’s Aid. Semi-structured interviews will be used to provide insight into the effects coercive control has on victims of abuse, alongside investigation into statutory understandings of coercive control. Data from the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) and the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) will inform upon regional and demographic disparities between cases of domestic abuse. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systemics theory, victim blaming theory and the cycle of violence will provide a theoretical framework which will inform upon cultural, social, and legal understandings of coercive control and the ramifications miscomprehension may have on civil proceedings, victim retraumatisation and domestic abuse motivated femicide.
