Victim-survivor experiences of police responses to coercive control: finding a place for ‘lived experience’

Coercive and controlling behaviour (CCB) was criminalised in England and Wales in 2015. This article, drawing on data from two victim-survivor centred research projects conducted over an eight-year period since the criminalisation of CCB, documents the continuities and discontinuities in their experiences of policing responses to CCB. It points to victim-survivor changing expectations of policing and considers the import of these changes for not only listening to their experiences but also hearing them. The challenges that evolving and dynamic lived experiences pose for policing policy and practice in relation to CCB are explored.