Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Moral Injury In Survivors Of Domestic Violence, Camille A. Fogel

WWU Graduate School Collection

Many survivors of domestic violence experience persistent but invisible psychological wounds that cannot be photographed for evidentiary purposes. Coercive control refers to the network of subtle, structural, and culturally sanctioned tactics that subjugate victims and cause them existential and identity-based harm. In this paper I propose that moral injury, a trauma construct not yet applied to this context, provides an important and nuanced framework for understanding the impact of coercive control and the invisible aftermath of partner abuse. In a cross-sectional survey-based study (N = 292), I tested a novel path analysis in which physical violence and coercive control differentially …