CSSLRV Director Myrna Dawson and three co-authors have released results of a survey conducted with police across Canada published in Policing & Society this month. The article, lead by Dr. Mary Aspinall, examines police perspectives on coercive control and risk in intimate partner violence. The University of New Brunswick project, lead by Principal Investigator Dr. Carmen Gill, undertook a national study surveying Canadian police officers to understand if coercive controlling behaviours are recognized by frontline police officers when responding to intimate partner violence calls and whether they have the ability to effectively assess the presence of coercive controlling behaviours. The newly-released paper presents their findings of police officer respondents’ perceptions of risk, and current ability to assess pertinent risk factors when responding to IPV. The results of the study are important in light of current discussions in Canada regarding the potential criminalization of coercive control.
