Evan Stark obituary

Sociologist whose research on coercive control led to new criminal justice responses to domestic abuse

In his book Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life (2007), the American sociologist Evan Stark, who has died aged 82, developed a new understanding of domestic abuse that has since been taken up by governments, justice systems, activists and survivors around the world. Incidents of physical assault, he argued, were only the most visible part of domestic abuse.

Drawing on 30 years of research as a forensic social worker, he documented a broader and more devastating pattern of manipulative behaviours and subjugation, closer to kidnapping or slavery, that he called “coercive control”. His book showed in detail how abusive men use coercive control to subvert women’s autonomy, isolate them from friends and family and deny them access to the basic resources needed by most people.

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