Ill-Conceived ‘Coercive Control’ Bills Seek to Ban Spousal Nagging

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Ill-Conceived ‘Coercive Control’ Bills Seek to Ban Spousal Nagging

SPRINGFIELD / March 10, 2022 – Three bills that seek to address “coercive control” behaviors among couples have been introduced in the Illinois General Assembly. The highly duplicative bills — HB 1808, HB 3292, and HB 4210 — aim to amend the Illinois Domestic Abuse Act of 1986 to expand the definition of “abuse” to include “coercive control.” The Coalition to End Domestic Violence urges lawmakers to oppose these ill-conceived proposals.

All three bills are designed to address the problem of spousal nagging, which is defined as “constantly harassing someone to do something” or “persistently annoying or finding fault with someone” (1).

HB 1808 (2) and HB 4210 (3) define coercive control identically to include the following (key words in italics):

“controlling, regulating, or monitoring the other person’s movements, communications, daily behavior, finances, economic resources, or access to services” and
“compelling the other person by force, threat of force, or intimidation to engage in conduct from which the other person has a right to abstain, or abstain from conduct in which the other person has a right to engage.”

HB 3292 (4) goes further, seeking to classify coercive control as a Class A misdemeanor crime. HB 3202 provides a detailed list of coercive control behaviors that are consistent with spousal nagging:

”Name-calling, degradation, and demeaning the individual frequently.”
“Controlling how much money is accessible to the individual and how it is spent.”
“Monitoring the individual’s activities, communications, and movements.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that In Illinois, more men than women are victims of coercive control (5). Each year:

Males: 636,000 victims
Females: 518,000 victims

As a result, law professor Leigh Goodmark has predicted that coercive control laws will cause “prosecutions of women to skyrocket” (6).

While coercive control and spousal nagging are problems in Illinois and elsewhere, these concerns are better addressed as counseling and mental health issues, not through heavy-handed legal measures (7).

Lawmakers should oppose HB 1808, HB 3292, and HB 4210, and any similar “coercive control” bills that may be introduced in the future.

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