Mechanisms of Power: Expanding the Coercive Control Framework to Courts, Cults, Trafficking, and Queer Intimacies

Mechanisms of Power: Expanding the Coercive Control Framework to Courts, Cults, Trafficking, and Queer Intimacies

This innovative session features five mini-presentations by graduate students from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, showcasing cutting-edge research that expands the coercive control framework into new contexts and populations. These presentations collectively demonstrate how coercive tactics manifest across seemingly disparate settings—from cults to trafficking to queer relationships—while advancing both methodological and theoretical innovations in the field. Students will present research applying the coercive control framework to cult environments through interviews with former members, revealing how manipulation, intimidation, and microregulation operate when coercion emanates from collective groups rather than individual perpetrators. Historical analysis of New York City court cases from 1883-1927 examines “predatory helpfulness” as a framework for understanding how grooming and recruitment facilitated commercial sexual exploitation. Research on domestic sex trafficking identifies “love bombing” as a recruitment tactic that obscures exploitation and facilitates trauma bonds. Two presentations focus specifically on LGBT+ populations, introducing mixed-methods approaches to assessing coercive control in queer relationships and examining sexual coercion dynamics across diverse LGBT+ partnerships. These studies highlight methodological blind spots in existing measures and reveal unique dynamics of power and control in queer contexts. Together, this symposium demonstrates the next generation of scholars expanding our understanding of coercive control’s reach across multiple domains.