How should we measure coercive control? A new tool: the Coercive-Composite Abuse Scale (C-CAS)

Coercive control is a complex behavioural phenomenon where severity, frequency, and patterns need to be examined for an individual collectively. However, approaches to measuring coercive control to date have demonstrated limited understanding of these patterns of behaviours by a partner or ex-partner that reflect an individual woman’s experience. Through standard instrument development, with academic and lived experience feedback and psychometric testing, we developed the Coercive-Composite Abuse Scale (C-CAS).  The C-CAS, a self-report measure of coercive control experiences among women has demonstrated initial reliability and validity and is suitable for use in population or clinical studies.

Presenters' Biographies:

Kelsey Hegarty is the Professor of Family Violence Prevention at the University of Melbourne and Royal Women’s Hospital (Melbourne, Australia). She leads the Safer Families Centre aiming to transform the health system to address domestic, family and sexual violence. She is recognised globally as an expert on measurement of domestic violence and early intervention responses in the health care setting.

Cynthia Brown is a research fellow at the Safer Families Centre at the University of Melbourne. She is an expert in psychometrics who developed the Technological Abuse in Relationships scale and other measures of domestic and sexual violence.