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Escaping Battered Credit: A Proposal For Repairing Credit Reports Damaged By Domestic Violence, Angela K. Littwin
Escaping Battered Credit: A Proposal For Repairing Credit Reports Damaged By Domestic Violence, Angela K. Littwin
Angela K Littwin
Debt and domestic violence are connected in ways not previously imagined. A new type of debt – which I have labeled “coerced debt” – is emerging from abusive relationships. Coerced debt occurs when the abuser in a violent relationship obtains credit in the victim’s name via fraud or coercion. It ranges from secretly taking out credit cards in victims’ names to coercing victims into signing loan documents to tricking victims into relinquishing their rights to the family home. As wide-ranging as these tactics can be, one consequence consistently emerges: ruined credit ratings. Coerced debt wreaks havoc on credit scores, which …
Coerced Debt: An Empirical Examination Of The Role Consumer Credit In Domestic Violence, Angela K. Littwin
Coerced Debt: An Empirical Examination Of The Role Consumer Credit In Domestic Violence, Angela K. Littwin
Angela K Littwin
When one pictures domestic violence, consumer credit probably does not come to mind. Physical and sexual abuse in intimate relationships has become an acknowledged reality. Structural abuse, which includes tactics such as isolating victims from other relationships and cutting off access to transportation, has also made headway in the public consciousness. Even forms of economic abuse that depress victims’ income have been well-documented. But there is another facet of domestic violence that has not yet been recognized: financial abuse through consumer credit. As consumer lending has permeated American life, violent partners have begun using debt as a means of exercising …