Beyond “Witnessing”: Children’s Experiences of Coercive Control in Domestic Violence and Abuse

Children’s experiences and voices are underrepresented in academic literature and professional practice around domestic violence and abuse. The project “Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies” (UNARS) addresses this absence, through direct engagement with children. We present an analysis fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of interpersonal violence Vol. 33; no. 10; pp. 1551 - 1581
Main Authors: Callaghan, Jane E. M., Alexander, Joanne H., Sixsmith, Judith, Fellin, Lisa Chiara
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2018
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
Abused children
Abused women
Academic Language
Adults
Boys
Child abuse & neglect
Children
Coercion
Consciousness
Constraints
Domestic violence
Family relations
Family Relationship
Family Violence
Girls
Interactionism
Interviews
Intimacy
Resistance
Responses
Victims
Victims of Crime
Violence
Witnesses
perceptions of domestic violence
children exposed to domestic violence
domestic abuse
domestic violence
coercive control
ISSN:0886-2605, 1552-6518, 1552-6518
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Children’s experiences and voices are underrepresented in academic literature and professional practice around domestic violence and abuse. The project “Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies” (UNARS) addresses this absence, through direct engagement with children. We present an analysis from interviews with 21 children in the United Kingdom (12 girls and 9 boys, aged 8-18 years), about their experiences of domestic violence and abuse, and their responses to this violence. These interviews were analyzed using interpretive interactionism. Three themes from this analysis are presented: (a) “Children’s experiences of abusive control,” which explores children’s awareness of controlling behavior by the adult perpetrator, their experience of that control, and its impact on them; (b) “Constraint,” which explores how children experience the constraint associated with coercive control in situations of domestic violence; and (c) “Children as agents,” which explores children’s strategies for managing controlling behavior in their home and in family relationships. The article argues that, in situations where violence and abuse occur between adult intimate partners, children are significantly affected, and can be reasonably described as victims of abusive control. Recognizing children as direct victims of domestic violence and abuse would produce significant changes in the way professionals respond to them, by (a) recognizing children’s experience of the impact of domestic violence and abuse; (b) recognizing children’s agency, undermining the perception of them as passive “witnesses” or “collateral damage” in adult abusive encounters; and (c) strengthening professional responses to them as direct victims, not as passive witnesses to violence.
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ISSN:0886-2605
1552-6518
1552-6518
DOI:10.1177/0886260515618946