Coercive Control Field Check / THR / THR-2
THR-2
Threats Involving Children, Family, Pets, or Others
Definition
Threats to harm children, other family members, pets, or third parties as a means of controlling the target.
How it operates
Threats to take, harm, or kill children. Threats against parents, siblings, or friends. Threats to harm or kill pets. Threats to make false reports that would harm others.
Function
Expand the field of fear beyond the target's own body and leverage the target's protective attachments.
Harm
The forced prioritization of others' safety over the target's own autonomy and the intensification of entrapment.
Why this is coercive control
Ordinary expressions of concern about children's welfare that lack a coercive or punitive function. The conduct here expands the field of fear beyond the target's own body and leverage the target's protective attachments.
Constructed example
“If you keep pushing this, the kids will pay for it.”
Fictitious. Written to illustrate the behavior. Not a case.
Hovey, Rye, Chambers & Scott 2026; Stark 2007.
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.
- Dutton, M. A., & Goodman, L. A. (2005). Coercion in intimate partner violence: Toward a new conceptualization. Sex Roles, 52(11-12), 743-756.
- Monckton Smith, J. (2020). Intimate partner femicide: Using Foucauldian analysis to track an eight stage progression to homicide. Violence Against Women, 26(11), 1267-1285.
© 2026 Carisa Carlton.
Carlton, C. (2026). Coercive Control Field Check: THR-2. Coercive Control Observatory. Last reviewed August 31, 2026.