REG-2

Rules about food, sleep, and bodily care

Definition

Control over eating, sleeping, medication, hygiene, or other forms of bodily care.

How it operates

Rules about what or when the target may eat. Control of sleep timing or sleep deprivation. Withholding, forcing, or covertly administering medication or other substances. Decisions about basic care such as bathing.

Function

Regulate the target's body and basic capacities for independent functioning.

Harm

The conversion of essential bodily needs into instruments of control, producing physical deterioration, dependence, and fear.

Why this is coercive control

Ordinary household coordination of meals or bedtimes without punitive framing or bodily control. The conduct here regulates the target's body and basic capacities for independent functioning.

Constructed example

“No carbs. I already made the meal plan. You'll thank me when you look better.”

Fictitious. Written to illustrate the behavior. Not a case.

Choudhury, Martland & Luzon 2025; Stark 2007; Walker, Hester & McCarthy 2023.

Also in REG

Literature this family is drawn from

Stark, E. (2007). Coercive control: How men entrap women in personal life. Oxford University Press.
Stark, E., & Hester, M. (2019). Coercive control: Update and review. Violence Against Women, 25(1), 81-104.
Pence, E., & Paymar, M. (1993). Education groups for men who batter: The Duluth model. Springer.
Fontes, L. A. (2015). Invisible chains: Overcoming coercive control in your intimate relationship. Guilford Press.
Dutton, M. A., & Goodman, L. A. (2005). Coercion in intimate partner violence: Toward a new conceptualization. Sex Roles, 52(11-12), 743-756.
Crossman, K. A., Hardesty, J. L., & Raffaelli, M. (2016). “He could scare me without laying a hand on me”: Mothers’ experiences of nonviolent coercive control during marriage and after separation. Violence Against Women, 22(4), 454-473.
Serious Crime Act 2015, s. 76 (England and Wales) (controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship).
Cal. Fam. Code § 6320(c), as amended by 2020 Cal. Stat. ch. 248 (SB 1141).

Literature map

Forums that enumerate this family

A statute that names a tactic is not a finding that the tactic is present.

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.

How to cite

Carlton, C. (2026). Is it coercive control?: REG-2. Carlton Research Instruments. /codebook/reg-2. Last reviewed August 31, 2026.