Dr Emma Katz is widely regarded as one the world’s foremost academic experts in her area of research — how coercive control impacts on children and young people.
Emma specializes in the harms caused by father-perpetrated coercive control, as well as children’s and mothers’ resistance and recovery. Read more in her book Coercive Control in Mothers’ and Children’s Lives, published by Oxford University Press.
In November, I published an article called Coercive Control: Myths vs Truths on this site.
What that post did was tackle some of the most common and harmful myths about coercive control that are held by “the public” — in other words by a large number of people in society.
I wrote it because it often strikes me as horrifying that there is so much misinformation and so many commonly believed myths about domestic abuse.
Because misinformation and myths about coercive control are more widely believed than the truth.
Because pushing back against these myths and misinformation is vital. The more people there are who can see through the rubbish and can advocate for the truth instead, the better.
Bad information does not just affect the public at large. It affects professionals whose jobs it is to deal with domestic violence and abuse. It also affects victims-survivors themselves, often influencing their own understandings of their experiences.
Because there are so many more outdated, inaccurate and victim-blaming ideas beyond those I had the time and space to cover, it was unsurprising that many of you let me know you’d like me to do another similar post in the future. Here it is.
I’ve included myths believed by judges, myths that stop people from taking post-separation abuse seriously, myths about what drives perpetrators’ abusive actions, and victim-blaming myths that masquerade as “empowering” advice.
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