Making sense of intimate partner violence has long been seen through the lens of coercive control. However, despite the longstanding presence of this concept, it is only in recent years that efforts have been made to recognise coercive control within the legal context. This article examines the extent to which the law per se has the power, or indeed the capacity, to respond to what is known about coercive control. To do so, it charts the varied ways in which coercive control has entered legal discourse in different jurisdictions and maps these efforts onto what is evidenced about the nature and extent of coercive control in everyday life. This article then places the legal and the everyday side by side and considers the unintended consequences of ‘coercive control creep’. In conclusion, it is suggested that the criminalisation of coercive control only serves to fail those it is intended to protect.

中文翻译：

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强制控制的刑事化：法律的力量？

长期以来，人们一直通过强制控制的视角来理解亲密伴侣的暴力行为。然而，尽管这一概念由来已久，但直到最近几年才努力在法律范围内承认强制控制。本文考察了法律本身在多大程度上有权或实际上有能力对已知的强制控制作出反应。为此，它描绘了强制控制进入不同司法管辖区的法律话语的各种方式，并将这些努力映射到日常生活中强制控制的性质和范围的证据上。然后，本文将法律与日常生活并列，并考虑“强制控制蔓延”的意外后果。综上所述，