New video campaign to raise awareness about coercive control in France
Published on 10/11/2022
This summer Women for Women France launched a national Multilingual Online Resource Centre, for all people subjected to domestic abuse in France. Victim-survivors and professionals can find reliable and up-to-date information in one place.
Today Women for Women France (WFWF) launched its new video campaign to raise awareness about coercive control in France, while promoting the Online Resource Centre.
While campaigns to raise awareness about domestic abuse often focus on physical violence in France, WFWF wanted to show the type of domestic abuse that best defines up to 80% of domestic abuse cases: coercive control.
What is coercive control?
See our in-depth article on coercive control.
Coercive control is a behavioral pattern that aims to make a perpetrator's partner or ex-partner dependent, subordinate and/or deprive or restrict their freedom of action.
Perpetrators intimidate, humiliate, monitor, manipulate, and/or isolate to exercise power and control.
Tactics can include psychological or sexual violence, psychological violence, social control, administrative abuse, economic violence etc.
Research shows that coercive control is present in 80% of cases of domestic abuse, and is recognised by international experts as the best way to understand perpetrator behaviour, and what the victim is being subjected to.
Coercive control at the heart of WFWF solutions
Women for Women France has consulted survivors to understand the coercive control tactics they were confronted with, then developed 90 practical guides to support victim-survivors on their difficult journey to reestablish freedom and independence.
This level of information has never before been reached for people confronted with domestic abuse.
The 90 practical guides are grouped into 7 themes:
- Identifying and understanding domestic abuse
- Rebuilding: money, housing, independence
- Dealing with separation, divorce, child custody
- Safety planning, obtaining protection orders
- Physical, sexual and mental health
- Understanding and applying for right of residence
- French police and justice
The Resource Centre is already available in 15 languages (English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Khmer, Malagasy, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Tamil, Turkish and Vietnamese) and will be translated into new languages as soon as the association will have the necessary budget.
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