#POWER AND CONTROL WHEEL PROFESSIONAL#

In England, perpetrator risk is believed to be underestimated in 71 per cent of domestic abuse cases, indicating that current intervention is insufficient to protect survivors and any children living with them ( HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2018). Dynamics of emotional and psychological abuse within a relationship are also predictive of an enhanced risk of future physical violence ( Straka and Montminy, 2008 Felson and Messner, 2014).

Much of the existing research base agrees that the consequences of emotional/psychological abuse and coercive control are similar to, or worse than, physical violence, with women survivors reporting that overcoming the former is far more difficult than the latter ( Follingstad et al, 1990 Crossman et al, 2016 Hester et al, 2017). Legal frameworks to protect those being abused have been slower to follow the UK 1 is currently one of a few countries to legislate against coercive control. Historically, the emphasis has been on physical violence within domestic abuse ( Straka and Montminy, 2008) however, there has been an international shift more recently, with increasing recognition of a pattern of domination called coercive control, which emphasises the deleterious effects of emotional/psychological manipulation and subjugation ( Stark, 2007 Day and Bowen, 2015). The findings have enabled an adaptation of the Power and Control Wheel to be developed, which, we propose, should be integrated into the assessment and management of risk in abusive relationships. However, our research identified additional patterns of surveillance, manipulation and control facilitated by what we have termed ‘agile technological surveillance’. Some of the tactics identified by the participants correspond with strategies of control identified through existing feminist theorisations, namely, the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme’s (DDAIP’s) Power and Control Wheel ( Pence and Paymar, 1993). This article seeks to address that gap through a qualitative study with women who experienced their mobile phones being manipulated as a tool for coercive control within their abuse by a male partner. This is a substantial gap in knowledge given the global prevalence of mobile phone ownership ( Statistica, 2018) and the increasing popularity of smartphones ( Wigginton et al, 2017). While the role of technologies in the domestic abuse of women is gaining momentum and attention ( Woodlock, 2013 2017 Women’s Aid, 2014 Dragiewicz et al, 2018 Douglas et al, 2019 Harris and Woodlock, 2019 Woodlock et al, 2019), there remains limited understanding and conceptualisation of how mobile phones provide perpetrators with new and enhanced opportunities for the coercive control of their current or former partners.

#POWER AND CONTROL WHEEL PROFESSIONAL#

Proposals are made for integrating this revised framework into professional practice to inform the assessment and management of risk in abusive relationships. An adaptation of the Power and Control Wheel has been developed and licensed to account for these new opportunities for surveillance, manipulation and control.

The portability and diverse capabilities of mobile phones have been manipulated by abusive men to develop strategies of ‘agile technological surveillance’, which allow them to track and monitor their partners in various ways ‘on the go’ and irrespective of physical proximity. This study with women survivors was able to identify that perpetrators use mobile phones in ways that go beyond the traditional tactics of abuse identified through the globally used feminist theorisation of the Power and Control Wheel (developed by the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme). While the role of technologies and digital media in the domestic abuse of women is gaining international attention, specific information regarding how mobile phones, and their various ‘apps’, may assist perpetrators in the coercive control of their current or former partners is still a relatively unexplored area in the research literature. Mobile phone ownership has become almost universal, with smartphones the most popular consumer electronics device.

Power and control wheel