Coercive control cases are lost because the evidence was never made visible.
You can change that.
Coercive Control & The Liberty Crime
Training and tools for attorneys and clinicians who need to prove what the record already shows.
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The evolution of protection laws including the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) from its original enactment in 1994 to its most recent authorization in 2022, which included the Keeping Children Safe from Family Violence Act, also known as “Kayden’s Law.”
This shift reframed family violence from a private incident-based matter to a matter of public health and safety, and a civil rights issue.
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The paradigm shift and the evolution from assault to a “liberty crime," based upon components of coercive control as defined by Dr. Evan Stark and described by the Duluth Power & Control Wheel.
DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), as defined by Dr. Jennifer Freyd, helps explain tactics used by abusers to shift blame to the survivor.
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Decision-making frameworks based upon stages of change (readiness) and perception (forms of bias) affect individuals and systems, thus impacting change in the courtroom.
Systemic DARVO impacts survivors and children, leading to prolonged consequences.
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Neurobiology and clinical trauma responses affected by the autonomic nervous system, neuroception, and the window of tolerance influence the trauma-informed hierarchy of needs.
Intersectionality with gender, disability (C-PTSD, etc.), and risk to survivors and children, including ACE scores and their impact on outcomes and child development.
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A shift toward trauma-informed care, including evaluation using instruments like the DASH Risk checklist and the Intimate Partner Violence Impact Assessment (IPVIA), and accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Documentation strategies, ethical and legal responsibilities, and best practices from bodies such as the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ).
Clinical
Years of reading the medical record from the inside: what objective data looks like from sustained coercive control, where it hides in routine documentation, and how to surface it systematically.
Legal
Fluency in the frameworks that decide these cases — including the emerging “liberty crime” standard — so clinical evidence is framed in language courts recognize and opposing counsel can’t easily dismantle.
Lived Experience
Personal knowledge of what the record fails to capture. That vantage point keeps this work grounded in what survivors actually experience — and what they need professionals to see.
About Tess Harmon, MSN, BA, RN
Tess Harmon works at the intersection where health, trauma, and the law overlap. She is an expert at pattern recognition, analyzing and interpreting data, and creating innovative solutions, including through the use of artificial intelligence.
She trains attorneys and clinicians to find, document, and present the evidence these cases have always contained — and builds the tools that make those methods part of daily practice.