New research shows how domestic violence so often starts with isolation and control

Melbourne: When it comes to domestic violence, cases involving catastrophic physical violence are the ones that most often make it into the media.

But our new research shows there are often signs of trouble long before such tragic outcomes – before couples move in together or get married.

We asked a large group of women about how domestic violence (also known as intimate partner violence) they’d experienced had started and escalated.

A general pattern emerged. First came psychological abuse, then physical abuse, then sexual abuse.

So if women, health workers and others can recognise the signs of psychological abuse early on, there’s a chance to intervene before abusive behaviour progresses.

How does this relate to coercive control?

The types of psychological abuse women told us about indicate they’d experienced coercive control.

Coercive control is defined as a pattern of restrictive, manipulative and dominating behaviours used to undermine a partner’s autonomy and

freedom. While it can occur in any type of relationship, it is most commonly perpetrated by men against women partners and is underpinned by inequitable gender roles and misogynistic attitudes.

Another way of describing coercive control is a pattern of behaviours that aim to prevent a partner from being in charge of their life.

For instance, this could mean controlling who a partner can see, what they can wear, or where they can go. Or it could mean questioning a partner’s sanity when they raise concerns about abusive behaviour.

There’s been growing awareness of the impact of coercive control and domestic violence more broadly on women’s health and wellbeing. There’s also growing awareness that coercive control can escalate to catastrophic abuse against women and children, including homicide.

So, Australian states and territories have scrambled to tackle the issue legally. Queensland recently joined New South Wales in making coercive control a standalone criminal offence.

We wanted to know more about the progression of domestic violence and if there were key stages to intervene to help prevent the worst harms.

So we surveyed a nationally representative sample of 815 Australian women who had experienced domestic violence in the past five years and asked them to create a timeline of their relationship.

Women started with the earliest warning signs that something was wrong and then added what happened around important life events, such as moving in together, having children, seeking help or leaving. Women could describe their experiences in their own words.

When we analysed all the timelines together, we created a summary of the general sequence of abuse over time.

First, there were attacks to a survivor’s mind, then her physical body, then her sexual self.

Psychological abuse an early sign

Psychological abuse was present in almost all relationships early in the timeline. It usually emerged before moving in together or getting

married.