Our Research Spotlight team speak to Dr Cassandra Wiener on reforming the law to protect those at risk.
By Dr Shamim Quadir (Senior Communications Officer), Published
Dr Cassandra Wiener is an academic at City St George’s, University of London whose research focuses on coercive control, a form of domestic abuse and purposeful pattern of behaviour used by perpetrators to harm, punish or frighten victims through assault, humiliation and intimidation, and, sometimes, through the loss of life.
Cassandra is co-director of City St George’s Centre for Justice Reform, and advises governments and activists around the world on coercive control and the doctrinal implications of domestic abuse law reform.
She recently sat down with our Research Spotlight team to talk about her research and wider work to protect those at risk and support victims. Watch the video:
Cassandra regularly acts as advisor to the Home Office and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner's office, among others, and played a key role in the drafting of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, successfully campaigning for a clause enhancing the criminal law protection of survivors of coercive control.
In 2023, her first book, ‘Coercive Control and the Criminal Law’, was published by Routledge. At the book’s launch event she shared how hopeful she was that the book will be used as a resource by those who can effect change in intervening into the cycle of violence against women and girls, saying:
Cassandra is currently working with the government of France and in April 2025, was invited to give evidence to the public committee hearing of the House of Representatives in Paris, on ‘Coercive Control at the Heart of Domestic Abuse,’ which was convened by Deputée Sandrine Josso.
She was asked for her advice in relation to the draft Bill no 279 ‘Strengthening the Fight Against Sexist and Sexual Violence’ which she helped draft, and if passed, would have made coercive control a criminal offence in France.
While the Senate rejected the Bill, and substituted a lesser offence of ‘Marital Harassment,’ Dr Wiener and colleagues aim to reconvene in Paris to work on how to improve the replacement Bill.
This work built on the meeting Dr Wiener hosted at the School in 2022, when the French Government appointed commission visited the UK to find out more about our controlling or coercive behaviour offence.
In addition to publishing in academic journals, Cassandra advocates for domestic abuse law reform on social media and in the mainstream press, and has given interviews to BBC news, The Times, the Guardian, The Independent, Wired and Unilad among others.
Reflecting on her work to date, Cassandra says:
Find out more
'Stop criminalising survivors’ Film launch at Centre for Justice Reform
Dr Wiener's comment in the March 2024 the Guardian article, “‘But he didn’t hit you, did he?’: inside the coercive control courtroom”
The Conversation UK article (April 2022), ‘Domestic abuse: new housing plan in England doesn’t go far enough to keep survivors safe’
Launch event of Dr Wiener’s book in April 2023
Reference to Dr Wiener’s research by Baroness Hayman in the House of Lords debate on the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 during the Covid panedmic)
Related schools, departments and centres
Other stories you might like
-
Domestic abuse in a new immigration landscape: the challenges facing migrant victim-survivors
The City Law School hosts Society of Legal Scholars funded conference on the challenges facing migrant victim-survivors of domestic abuse.
-
Coercive Control and the Criminal Law
Dr Cassandra Wiener launches her important book before a gathering of survivors, activists, criminal lawyers, policy makers and practitioners.
-
In memory of Holly Newton: Why teens fall between the gaps of domestic abuse support
Academics from the Violence & Society research centre echo Holly Newton’s parents call for domestic abuse policy reform to better protect teens.
