Jennifer’s Law:
When the Law Recognizes
Coercive Control
Identifying the Pattern
Last reviewed: August 2026
Not all domestic violence leaves a bruise.
Sometimes abuse lives in the slow deterioration of another person’s autonomy — through financial control, humiliation, intimidation, isolation, surveillance, threats, and the relentless manipulation of everyday life. Viewed one incident at a time, these behaviors are often minimized, explained away, and ignored. But together, they accumulate into something devastating: a pattern of power and control.
That pattern has a name: coercive control.
Victims, survivors, and family courts cannot begin to understand something they don’t have a name for. For women who have lived inside an abuse cycle that leaves no evidence and is seemingly invisible to anyone outside of it, legal recognition of coercive control finally says out loud that what cannot be seen is not imagined. Legislation sweeping the nation — broadening domestic violence laws to include coercive control — is a critical layer of protection that too many women have needed for far too long.
In my home state of Connecticut, I finally found that protection in Jennifer’s Law.
What Is Jennifer’s Law?
Connecticut’s Jennifer’s Law was named after two Connecticut women: Jennifer Dulos and Jennifer Magnano.
Jennifer Dulos disappeared in May of 2019, in the middle of a divorce and custody battle. When she filed for divorce and emergency custody of her five children, she also sought a restraining order, describing her fear of her husband’s threatening behavior while she remained trapped under his control. Her request was denied — Connecticut law at the time required proof of physical abuse. Her body has never been found.
Jennifer Magnano’s entire life was controlled by her husband while she suffered severe emotional and physical abuse. When he threatened to kill her, she fled the state with her children. Yet Connecticut Family Court required her return for a custody hearing, and, bound by the law of a system that could not see what was happening to her, she came back. Upon her return, she was shot and killed by her husband in front of her children.
Had there been legal recognition that dominance and control are a precursor to violence — and even to murder — protection could have been within reach for both of these women, and for so many others who sought help and were turned away by the very systems meant to save them.
Legislation finally took shape in 2021 as Jennifer’s Law, through the work of grassroots advocacy organizations, the family of Jennifer Magnano, and Connecticut legislators. Jennifer’s Law redefined domestic violence in the state, expanding it beyond physical abuse to include coercive control — “a pattern of behavior that in purpose or effect unreasonably interferes with a person’s free will and personal liberty.”
Understanding Coercive Control
Connecticut law offers examples of behavior that may constitute coercive control when it forms part of a controlling pattern, including:
- Isolating someone from friends, family, or other support
- Depriving someone of basic necessities
- Controlling, regulating, or monitoring another person’s movements
- Monitoring or controlling communications and daily behavior
- Controlling finances, economic resources, or access to services
- Using force, threats, or intimidation to make someone do something they have the right to refuse
- Preventing someone from doing something they have the right to do
- Committing or threatening cruelty toward an animal as a means of intimidation
- Forced sexual acts, or threats of a sexual nature, including threats to release sexual images
Coercive control is not one bad argument, one bad decision, or one isolated event. It is a pattern that persists — a controlling relationship designed to force dependence, strip away independence and autonomy, and take away a person’s ability to leave.
Is Coercive Control a Crime In Connecticut?
No. Jennifer’s Law does not extend into criminal law. Its power lives in the civil and family-law system, as part of the definition of domestic violence, and it can be the basis for a civil restraining order. Recognizing coercive control as domestic violence is not the same as criminalizing it as a standalone offense. However, once a civil restraining order is granted on the ground of coercive control, a violation of that order by the perpetrator is a criminal offense.
The Road to Legislative Change
Connecticut was one of the first states to recognize that domestic violence can involve patterns of domination that reach far beyond physical assault, and it is part of a growing national movement. Coercive control legislation has been enacted in other states as well — but the laws are not all the same, and in many states there is no such protection at all.
As of August 2026, states that recognize coercive control in some form — the type of recognition varies by state — include:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Hawaii
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- Vermont
- Washington
Because these laws differ so much, the real question isn’t whether your state “has a law,” but how it recognizes coercive control and what protection that recognition actually provides. That answer is still changing as lawmakers, courts, advocates, and survivors reshape what domestic violence is understood to mean. If you are trying to understand your options, check your own state’s current laws, or reach out to a local domestic violence advocate or attorney where you live.
Why Defining Coercive Control Matters
For generations, domestic violence was defined only by what could be seen — the bruises, the broken bones, the photographs. Naming the pattern of coercive control recognizes what can’t be photographed: the isolation, the monitoring, the fear, the financial dependence, the constant calculation of another person’s reaction, the slow surrender of choices that once belonged to you.
Naming coercive control cannot undo what was done to a person, and a law cannot, by itself, repair every system a survivor will have to face. But language matters. Before a pattern can be recognized, it has to be seen. And before it can be seen, it has to be named. Jennifer’s Law gave that pattern a name. It is the difference Jennifer never had, and it means a woman can seek protection before it is too late.
Legal Disclaimer
This page is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Domestic-violence, protection-order, custody, and coercive-control laws vary significantly by jurisdiction and can change. Anyone seeking guidance about a specific legal situation should consult a qualified attorney familiar with the laws of the applicable state.
