What Is Controlling and Coercive Behaviour and How Does It Impact Divorce Proceedings?

What Is Controlling and Coercive Behaviour?

Controlling and coercive behaviour is a pattern of repeated or ongoing actions—emotional, financial, social, or psychological—that one person uses to dominate and undermine the other. Some abusive partners may be physically violent, but many rely on more subtle methods of intimidation. You may feel like you’re constantly on edge, worried about breaking “rules” set by your partner.

Ending a marriage is never easy, and it can become even more challenging if controlling or coercive behaviour is part of the relationship. While the UK now has a no-fault divorce system—meaning you don’t have to prove your spouse did anything wrong to get a divorce—coercive control can still affect how financial issues and child arrangements are decided. This article explains what coercive control is, why it’s illegal, and how it might play a role in your divorce. To understand what you need to do to prove coercive control, see our article How to Prove Coercive Control. For practical strategies where the other person is a high-conflict partner, see our guide on divorcing a narcissist.

Below are some everyday examples of how coercive control can show up:

• Financial Abuse: Taking your wages or benefits, stopping you from having a separate bank account, or forcing you into debt.
• Isolation: Cutting you off from friends and family, or closely tracking how you spend your time away from home.
  Surveillance and Monitoring: Checking your phone or social media, sometimes using spyware or “concern” as a cover.
• Restricting Basic Freedoms: Dictating how you dress, when you sleep, or whether you can leave the house—possibly justified by “cultural tradition” or “family honour.”
• Humiliation or Intimidation: Putting you down over and over, threatening to share private information, or using children, pets, or immigration documents against you.
• Controlling Language and Identity: Stopping you from using or learning a particular language, or preventing you from mixing with people outside your cultural or ethnic background.
• Enforcing ‘Rules’: Setting tasks or standards that, if broken, lead to severe consequences (even if those consequences are mostly threats).

Sometimes, cultural factors shape how coercive control happens or is perceived. For example, a partner may use religious or cultural reasons to justify their behaviour. This doesn’t make it any less abusive. In the UK, controlling and coercive behaviour is taken seriously, whatever the cultural context.

Why Controlling and Coercive Behaviour Is Illegal in the UK

Under Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, coercive control is a crime if it meets the following conditions:

1. The behaviour is repeated or continuous and is controlling or coercive in nature.
2. At the time of the behaviour, the victim and the abuser are “personally connected” (for example, spouses, ex-partners, cohabiting partners, or family members).
3. The behaviour has a serious effect on the victim—meaning it causes them to fear violence on at least two occasions, or it causes significant alarm or distress that substantially impacts their day-to-day life.
4. The abuser knows or ought to know that their behaviour will have a serious effect.

A person found guilty under this law can face a fine or up to five years in prison. Other legislation can also apply—such as the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (to protect you from stalking-like conduct) or the Family Law Act 1996 (allowing civil remedies like non-molestation orders). If you report abuse to the police and there’s enough evidence, they may send it to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider criminal charges.

How Controlling and Coercive Behaviour Impacts Divorce Proceedings

Under no-fault divorce rules, you don’t need to prove one spouse’s wrongdoing to end the marriage. However, any controlling or coercive behaviour can still matter when it comes to financial settlements and child arrangements.

Although courts usually won’t give you extra assets just because your spouse behaved badly, controlling or coercive actions might have a serious indirect impact—especially if they harmed your finances, shook your confidence in the workplace, or endangered your children’s wellbeing.

Financial Settlement

UK courts aim to divide marital assets “fairly,” considering both spouses’ needs, contributions, and financial resources. Generally, the court only looks at “bad conduct” in very rare situations—like when one spouse deliberately wastes or hides money to avoid paying a settlement.

However, controlling and coercive behaviour can explain why you’re at an economic disadvantage. Perhaps your partner prevented you from working, emptied your personal bank account, or took out loans in your name. All of this can leave you in a financially weaker position, which the court may take into account when dividing assets.

It’s also worth noting that each spouse must disclose their full financial situation. If your partner tries to slow down or undermine the divorce process—for example, by refusing to disclose assets or threatening to get rid of them—the court can make them cover some or all of your legal bills as a “cost order.”

Controlling and coercive behaviour can also creep into settlement talks, where one spouse might pressure you to accept an unfair deal by threatening to hold back child support or “make your life miserable.” You’ll still need evidence to show this is happening, but judges are increasingly aware of such methods.

Child Arrangements

When deciding where a child should live and how much time they spend with each parent, the family court’s main focus is always the child’s best interests. If you can show that a parent’s controlling and coercive behaviour poses a risk (whether emotional, psychological, or physical), the judge may order a fact-finding hearing. This hearing works on the “balance of probabilities” standard, which is lower than the criminal standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

If the court decides that the controlling and coercive behaviour genuinely endangers the child’s safety, it can:

• Require Supervised Contact: The child’s visits with the abusive parent happen at a contact centre or in the presence of an approved supervisor.
• Issue Specific Issue Orders: These orders address a particular concern, like stopping the controlling parent from taking the child abroad without permission.
• Grant Prohibited Steps Orders: These forbid the controlling parent from certain actions, such as moving the child’s school or relocating them without consent.
• Limit or Cut Off Direct Contact: In the most serious cases, face-to-face visits may be suspended entirely.

Overall, the goal is to protect the child from harm while still allowing safe and positive relationships with both parents, if possible.

Contact Tyrer Roxburgh Solicitors for Help

If you’re worried about controlling and coercive behaviour and how it could impact your divorce—whether relating to financial issues or arrangements for children—our skilled and compassionate family team at Tyrer Roxburgh Solicitors is here to guide you. We understand the emotional strain of facing an abuser in family court and will work with you to protect your interests and those of your children. Get in touch on 0208 899 3319 or via one of the options below today to learn more about your legal options and take a step towards a safer, more stable future.