Is it coercive control? / CHI / CHI-2
CHI-2
Using children as monitors, messengers, or leverage
Definition
Recruiting or relying on children to report on the target, involving children in adult process or logistical decisions, triangulating a child into parental conflict, or conditioning access and compliance on children's reported statements.
How it operates
Pressuring children to report who visits the target's home, what the target does, or what the target says. Using children to carry adult messages or threats. Pitting a child against the other parent. Conducting control through handover, access, or service logistics.
Function
Extend surveillance and emotional control through the child.
Harm
For the target: continuous monitoring and leverage. For the children: placement in an adult role, divided loyalty, fear, and the experience of being treated as an instrument rather than a person.
Why this is coercive control
Age-appropriate, non-coercive sharing of ordinary information between households. The conduct here extends surveillance and emotional control through the child.
Constructed example
“Emma told me someone was at your house Tuesday. I need to know who it is, as this is obviously a critical issue involving her welfare.”
Fictitious. Written to illustrate the behavior. Not a case.
Callaghan et al. 2018; Clements et al. 2022; Spearman et al. 2023; Sullivan et al. 2024; Douglas 2018; Katz 2016, 2022.
Literature this family is drawn from
- Stark, E. (2007). Coercive control: How men entrap women in personal life. Oxford University Press.
- Katz, E. (2016). Beyond the physical incident model: How children living with domestic violence are harmed by and resist regimes of coercive control. Child Abuse Review, 25(1), 46-59.
- Douglas, H. (2018). Legal systems abuse and coercive control. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 18(1), 84-99.
- Miller, S. L., & Smolter, N. L. (2011). “Paper abuse”: When all else fails, batterers use procedural stalking. Violence Against Women, 17(5), 637-650.
- Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.
Identifying a behavior described here does not establish a pattern of behavior and does not establish coercive control. A tactic is not a regime. The instrument consolidates peer-reviewed literature so a reader can check when in doubt. The instrument is not a coding manual. Carlton Research does not provide the instrument as a weapon.
© 2026 Carisa Carlton.
Carlton, C. (2026). Is it coercive control?: CHI-2. Carlton Research Instruments. /codebook/chi-2. Last reviewed August 31, 2026.