Domestic Abuse is More than Physical Violence: Examining the Role of Coercive Control 
Cory Hernandez, Staff Attorney, Family Violence Appellate Project
Mindy Mechanic, PhD, Professor of Psychology Emerita, California State University, Fullerton, & Family Violence Appellate Project advisory board member

Description:
This workshop is intended for attorneys, family court services staff, and judges to recognize nonphysical forms of abuse, including coercive control. Recent legal changes, including Senate Bill 1141, as well as a growing body of social scientific research, have helped us all better understand the role of nonphysical abuse in domestic violence cases. Certain already marginalized groups, such as LGBTQI+ individuals, immigrants, and people of color, face unique experiences with nonphysical abuse, such as threats to "out" someone's sexual orientation or to call immigration authorities on someone. Understanding how nonphysical abuse occurs, and how to address it, is important and necessary to keep families safe. This workshop will be part lecture-style and part interactive: the presenters will present some hypothetical scenarios and ask participants how they would respond, whether they find the example to be coercive control, and so on.  The presenters, Mindy and Cory, have presented on Senate Bill 1141 and coercive control before.

This workshop is designed to help you:

• Recognize nonphysical forms of abuse, including coercive control; 

• Describe recent social scientific and legal changes, including SB 1141, that have clarified the family law definition of domestic violence, which applies in some ways to other civil and criminal cases; and
• Identify how already marginalized groups uniquely and disproportionately experience nonphysical abuse.

Register HERE