Assessing When Threats with Firearms are Forms of Coercive Control in Domestic Violence

Threats of violence are, at a minimum, psychological abuse and a form of coercive control. Coercive control is domestic violence (DV) when it is used by a partner to intimidate, degrade, isolate, and control the victim’s behavior. It can include low-level physical violence, sexual coercion, stalking, and threats as well as severe violence and homicide. Coercive control can create an ongoing sense of fear and chronic stress. Threats can be explicit or implicit. Explicit threats are easily recognizable while implicit threats may depend on the context and the history of the relationship. An example of an implicit threat is “I hope nothing bad happens to you.”

Coercive control can involve the use of a firearm as a means of explicit or implicit threat. Threats with a weapon may include brandishing, loading with ammunition, pointing, firing, and verbally threatening to harm or shoot. In addition to frightening a victim, a firearm can be used to strike a victim, same as in the use of any physical object such as a club. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that from 1993–1998, about 27% of DV female victims were threatened with a weapon. Threats of harm to a victim as well as to a wide variety of others, including pets and property, are serious issues for law enforcement, medical, and social service providers and may be criminal assault.

Both threats and coercive control are associated with DV homicide. A study of criminal justice and victim service professionals reported the perceived risk factors based on their experiences for potentially fatal DV-related firearm violence (Lynch, Jackson, & Logan, 2021). The perceived risk for DV-related homicide in order from highest to lowest was:

1. Abuser threatened victim with a firearm
2. Victim separated from abuser
3. Abuser has access to a firearm
4. Abuser is stalking the victim
5. Abuser’s coercive controlling behavior

Risk assessment of DV victims should always include nonviolent coercive control as it can escalate to severe violence and homicide. Assessment may allow service providers to identify patterns of abuse and control in addition to focusing on violent incidents. It is important to inquire exactly how firearms are explicitly and implicitly used as a means of coercive control in DV and when and how this becomes violent. This is an important point of inquiry for service providers as this pattern could carry through to fatal violence. Sexual coercion should also be considered as a risk factor for DV abuse and homicide. Finally, whatever the methods of coercive control used by an abuser, its frequency and, particularly, its severity should also be assessed.