‘Listen to me, his behaviour is erratic and I’m really worried for our safety . . .’: Help-seeking in the context of coercive control

Abstract

This article explores 12 female victim-survivors’ experiences of seeking protection from criminal justice agencies in Dyfed-Powys, an area in Wales. The discussion draws on rich qualitative data, from a series of narrative interviews held in 2015, which offers new insights into how coercive and controlling behaviours influence ‘help-seeking’. The findings suggest that for 12 women, deemed to be high-risk, the experience of actively engaging with criminal justice agencies, served to instil in them a sense that they were alone at the most dangerous period in their help-seeking journey, namely the juncture of leaving, without formal protection. Under-enforcement by justice agents resulted in what Stubbs terms ‘non-feasance’: a process whereby women are unable to access protection from the law, thus potentially increasing the propensity for lethal violence.