Coercive control and technology-facilitated parental stalking in children’s and young people’s lives

Nikupeteri, Anna and Katz, Emma and Laitinen, Merja (2021) Coercive control and technology-facilitated parental stalking in children’s and young people’s lives. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 5 (3). pp. 395-412. ISSN 2398-6808

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Abstract

Knowledge of technology-facilitated abuse and stalking has increased in recent decades, but research on how children and young people are exposed to these behaviours by their parent is still lacking. This paper examines how technology-facilitated parental stalking manifests in children’s and young people’s everyday lives in contexts where parents have separated and fathers/father-figures have stalked mothers as part of post-separation coercive control. The paper analyses materials from 131 stalking cases dealt with by district courts in Finland from 2014–2017 in cases that involved a relationship (dating, cohabitation or marriage), separation/divorce, and one or more children. Analysis of these court decisions identified that children and young people were exposed to three manifestations of technology-facilitated parental stalking: (1) Threats of violence and death; (2) Intrusive and obsessive fatherhood; and (3) Disparaging and insulting motherhood/womanhood. These findings underline the following contextual factors that are important for professionals to consider in identifying and helping children and young people exposed to parental stalking: Technology enabling constant coercive and controlling abuse, technology in maintaining abusive parenthood, and technology in magnifying gendered tactics of abuse. The paper argues that children’s exposure to and vulnerability to technology-facilitated parental stalking must be more widely recognised.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in the Journal of gender-based violence. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Nikupeteri, Anna, Emma Katz, and Merja Laitinen. (2021). Coercive Control and Technology-Facilitated Parental Stalking in Children and Young People's Lives. Journal of Gender-Based Violence is available online at: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jgbv/5/3/article-p395.xml
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Emma Katz
Date Deposited:	02 Sep 2021 08:44
Last Modified:	14 Dec 2022 16:03
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3324

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