Human Trafficking and Coercive Control: Representations in Media and Challenges in Legislation

In 2015, two key pieces of legislation were introduced into UK law concerning fundamental issues of control and freedom. Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act (England and Wales) criminalised coercive control within domestic abuse/intimate partner violence. The Modern Slavery Act was implemented to tackle the growing problem of human trafficking and modern-day slavery in the UK, with coercion recognised as a tool of control. This chapter examines commonalities of experiences of coercion in these and other situations of control. Additionally, an analysis of media portrayals of coercive control demonstrates how such concepts are often (mis)-represented and thus misunderstood in the public sphere. Coercive control legislation is similarly inadequately conceptualised in practice and may be failing women in intimate partner violence cases within the criminal justice system. The chapter concludes with a caution against including the concept of coercive control in cases of modern slavery and human trafficking.