Coercive Control Field Check / SEXC

Category 08

Sexual Coercion and Reproductive Control

Sexual coercion within controlling relationships operates through entitlement, pressure, punishment, deception, triangulation, and recruitment of third parties rather than only through physical force. Reproductive coercion is a distinct tactic that interferes with autonomous decision-making about contraception, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes.

Bagwell-Gray 2021; Matolcsi 2020; Miller et al. 2010; Pence & Paymar 1993; Stark 2007; Tarzia & Hegarty 2023.

• SEXC-1

  Pressure, Guilt, and Entitlement Claims Regarding Sex

  Framing sex as owed, obligatory, or a test of love or loyalty; persistent pressure after refusal; guilt campaigns that convert the target's bodily autonomy into a relational debt.

• SEXC-2

  Punishment or Retaliation for Refusal

  Withdrawal of affection, rage, accusations of infidelity or frigidity, sulking, or other sanctions explicitly or clearly linked to the target's refusal of sex.

• SEXC-3

  Reproductive Coercion

  Interference with contraception, pressure regarding pregnancy continuation or termination, monitoring of cycles, or other tactics that strip the target of individual reproductive decision-making. Reproductive coercion operates bidirectionally. Coerced pregnancy tactics include contraception sabotage and pressure to conceive. Birth-giving prevention tactics include pressure or force to terminate a wanted pregnancy.

• SEXC-4

  Deception for Sexual Access

  Obtaining sexual access through material lies or concealment of facts that, if known, would have led the target to withhold consent. The deception functions as a form of coercive control by manufacturing a false basis for intimacy, thereby violating the target's sexual autonomy, dignity, and right to informed choice.

• SEXC-5

  Triangulation as Sexual and Relational Control

  The deliberate introduction or weaponization of a third party (real or implied) to provoke jealousy, competition, insecurity, or compliance in the sexual and relational sphere.

• SEXC-6

  Coercion Into Multi-partner or Third-party Sexual Activity

  Pressure, guilt, threats, distorted reasoning, conditional affection, or other conditions used to compel the target to engage in sexual activity with third parties of the same or opposite sex, to participate in swinging or group sex, to allow the abuser to watch, or to permit recording, to perform sexually online with or without compensation when the target does not freely desire these acts. The coercion is typically framed as necessary to please him, save the relationship, help make ends meet, appear sexually adventurous, or maintain financial or relational security.