Freedom Curtailed: Coercive Control and Economic Abuse

The panel explored how coercive control and economic abuse continue to undermine access to justice in the UK, highlighting persistent system failures across legal aid, the family and criminal courts, welfare and financial systems.

Speakers stressed that victims are routinely left carrying the burden of navigating complex processes, facing disbelief, evidence barriers, delays, and a pro-contact culture that enables post-separation abuse. They warned that economic abuse remains under-investigated and rarely prosecuted, that legal aid deserts and means-testing block safe routes to separation, and that courts are too easily played by abusers.

The discussion emphasised the need for ambitious cross-government reform, mandatory training, improved first responses, and a justice system that recognises all forms of abuse (including non-physical harm) so that access to justice does not depend on a victim’s resources, resilience, or postcode.