Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, right, and Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky, left, discuss coercive control. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)
If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.
FRANKFORT — A Kentucky victim of “coercive control” can’t use that alone to get a protective order against their abuser.
A northern Kentucky lawmaker wants to change that. Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, filed House Bill 96, which would expand what qualifies for protective orders.
Her bill, which has a slew of bipartisan cosponsors, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday 17-1.
The only lawmaker to vote against it was Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, who expressed concern about people wrongfully losing access to their guns.
Currently, someone in Kentucky can get a protective order if they’ve experienced physical violence or face immediate threat of physical violence. This bill adds coercive control, a more nuanced type of abuse in which one person exerts control over another through isolation, threats, surveillance, loss of financial freedom and medical access and more.
During Wednesday’s committee, Dietz said Kentucky law is “outdated when it comes to recognizing the psychological and non physical tactics of abusers.”
“Under current law, many survivors of coercive control have little to no legal recourse until physical violence occurs. By then, it may be too late,” she said. “Adding coercive control to our domestic violence statute will protect victims before abuse turns physical, closes some legal loopholes that allow abusers to control their victims without consequence, strengthens our protective orders by recognizing the full extent of domestic violence and encourages early intervention by law enforcement and social services, preventing further escalation.”
‘Another tool to save lives’
In 2023, 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men in Kentucky were victims of intimate partner violence, according to the state’s Domestic Violence Data Report. Advocates have said the numbers are likely higher than what is known, though.
Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky, who testified alongside Dietz in committee, told lawmakers that domestic violence survivors live with “horrible atrocities” every day.
The ION Center provides free services, including emergency shelter, pet boarding and court advocacy to survivors of intimate partner violence in a 13-county area.
“When we look at what’s at the root of that, it’s all about coercive control,” Burch said.
She shared the story of a woman who was severely attacked once, then her abuser used coercive control to keep her “afraid.”
“She was beaten with a metal pipe that they kept under the sink. He didn’t have to hurt her anymore. All he had to do was point to that metal pipe and that sink, and that was enough to keep her afraid, and to keep her in that home,” Burch said. “So that gesture of pointing to that sink — she was almost beat to death — epitomizes coercive control and why we need this protection.”
Others may not experience that degree of violence, but may have all their independence stripped from them.
“Unlike physical violence, which is often easier to identify, coercive control operates in the shadows,” Dietz explained. “It restricts a victim’s independence, their financial resources, communication and even their daily movements. It can include threats, humiliation, surveillance, gas lighting and controlling access to basic needs. The result is a victim who feels trapped, powerless and unable to escape.”
While it doesn’t always leave physical marks, “its impact is just as devastating,” said Dietz, who is also a family law attorney.
“It leads to a severe emotional trauma, financial ruin, and in many cases, an escalation to physical violence,” she said. “Survivors should not have to wait for bruises before they are believed and protected.”
In its definition of coercive control, the bill includes a perpetrator threatening to use a weapon “that appears capable of producing bodily harm” and does so in a way to intimidate the victim or their pets.
“If we pass this bill, we’re going to create a situation where someone hasn’t committed a crime and they could be brought into question by virtue of simply carrying a firearm, not brandishing a firearm, not making a threat with the firearm, but just carrying a firearm,” Maddox said. “And to me, that’s problematic.”
Dietz emphasized the ultimate decision on issuing an order is left up to a judge, and the behavior would ultimately need to fit into an ongoing pattern of coercive control.
“It’s not a one off,” she said.
Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, voted in favor of the bill in committee but also expressed concern about misuse and encouraged Dietz to address concerns about false claims.
“I’ve sent this to a number of lawyers and judges, all with significant concerns about how it’s going to broaden the opportunity for false claims, and that is real,” Nemes said.
The bill can now head to the House floor for a full chamber vote but may be edited through floor amendments.
“What my hope is: is that we’re going to save lives on the front end,” Dietz said. “I think that all we’re doing is we’re giving the judges another tool to save lives.”
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