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I was in college and I had a possessive boyfriend at the time and it started with little things.

I like your hair when it's better like this. I like when you wear these kind of jeans and you do it at first making your partner happy,

but then before you know it, you're a different person. So it's not like this happens overnight where it's like,

you can't go out anywhere. No, it started with little things and then you don't even realize how big it's gotten.

Well, what do we mean by coercive control?

If you imagine that you're in a relationship with somebody or you're a family member and they're controlling of every aspect of you,

you might tell you what to wear, you might tell you when you can see friends or family members, control your finances.

It's something that can lead to loss of self-confidence, loss of friends, loss of family, social isolation,

and it can lead to very traumatic emotional and psychological injuries.

A lot of victims do not recognise that they're in an abuse relationship.

A lot of women that we support believe that if the relationship's not physical, then they're not experiencing domestic violence.

Hello and welcome to Real Crime Profile. This is Jim Clemente, former New York City prosecutor and retired FBI profiler.

And today with me in the studio is Laura Richards, Criminal Behavioral Analyst, advocate and author and director and founder of Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service.

And I'm Lisa Zambetti. I'm the casting director for Criminal Mines and Criminal Mines Beyond Borders.

And I have a real interest in real crime and the minds that solve those crimes.

So today we have a very special episode that Laura did while she was away in London.

So Laura, you want to tell us what it's about?

I will and it was a fantastic interview with someone called Professor Evan Stark, which those of us who work in the sector and have worked in the domestic violence field and stalking will know that he wrote the book on the seminal book, I should say, on coercive control.

And he's actually American and you know charting sort of his career.

He really started out as a researcher, as an award-winning researcher.

Look at cases involving battered women or abused women and children.

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