Children of Coercive Control

"This book identifies coercive control of women as the most important cause and context of 'child abuse' and child homicide outside a war zone, including deliberate injury to children, non- accidental child death and the sexual abuse, denigration, exploitation, isolation and subordination of children. I critique the current approaches to domestic violence and child maltreatment, provide a working model of the coercive control of children and closely examine three recent forensic cases involving of children of coercive control. In most instances, the coercive control of women and children run in tandem. In these cases, children are abused to further entrap and exploit their mother, a form of 'secondary' victimization. But I also provide examples of cases in which abused mothers harm their children to survive or to protect them from worse (examples, of what I term "patriarchal mothering") and where children are 'weaponized' or are otherwise implicated in the coercive control of their mother. In all these instances, the child is the victim of coercive control"--
The Coercive Control of Children extends Evan Stark's path-breaking analysis of interpersonal violence to children, showing that coercive control is the most important cause and context of child abuse and child homicide outside a war zone, as well as of the sexual abuse, denigration, exploitation, isolation and subordination of children. The book provides a working model of the coercive control of children and illustrates its dynamics and consequences with dramatic cases drawn from the headlines and Dr. Stark's forensic practice. The cases include those in which the coercive control of children runs in tandem with the coercive control of women, where children are "weaponized" in the coercive control of their mother and cases where abused mothers harm their children to survive or protect them from worse. By highlighting a criminal cause of child maltreatment and a plausible justice response, Evan Stark challenges the common assumptions that child abuse and neglect fall on a continuum of problems rooted in maternal deficits, immaturity, poverty, and environmental stressors as well as the combination of Child Welfare and Child Protection Services that currently provide the ameliorative response.