Systemic Responses: Family Courts, Peer Support, and Institutional Reform (Session 7)

Systemic Responses: Family Courts, Peer Support, and Institutional Reform (Session 7)

This session explores systemic and institutional responses to coercive control, examining documentation practices, peer support interventions, and institutional dynamics. Ruth Darlene presents a trauma-informed approach to empowering survivors through documentation of coercive control, addressing the critical challenge of how survivors can effectively document patterns of controlling behavior that leave little physical evidence. Her work provides practical tools for survivors and advocates to create compelling records of coercive control that can support safety planning, legal proceedings, and service provision. Carrie McManus shares research on the impacts of peer support on coping mechanisms and cortisol levels for women affected by domestic violence and coercive control, providing physiological evidence of how peer connections support healing while demonstrating the measurable benefits of peer-based interventions. Lisa Fischel-Wolovick examines the institutional coercive control of children, exploring how systems meant to protect children can instead become tools of control themselves. Together, these presentations reveal how effective responses to coercive control require attention to documentation practices, recognition of peer support’s healing power, and critical examination of how institutions can perpetuate rather than prevent coercive control.