Evan Stark is a sociologist, forensic social worker, a widely published author and an award-winning researcher with an international reputation for his innovative work on the legal, policy and health dimensions of interpersonal violence, including its effects on children. Dr. Stark’s book, Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life (Oxford, 2007) was named the outstanding book in the social sciences for 2007 by the American Publishers’ Association, a recipient of the “Choice” Award, and the American Library Association for “outstanding academic book reviewed in 2008.” The founder of one of the first battered women’s shelters in the United States, Dr. Stark’s work on coercive control has helped shape policies on gender violence both nationally and internationally. He has worked, and laid the conceptual groundwork for new offenses involving “coercive and controlling behavior’. He has been an expert in more than 100 criminal, family, civil and child welfare cases, including Nicholson v. Williams, a successful federal class action against New York City that ended the removal of children from non-offending victims of domestic violence.
