What the words mean
Coercive control is a pattern, not an incident. Women’s Aid describes it as an intentional pattern of behaviour, taking place over time, by which one person exerts power and control over another. The tools are familiar once named: cutting someone off from friends and family, watching and restricting what they do, running down their confidence, controlling their money, and the threat of what happens if they object.
In England and Wales it has been a crime since December 2015. Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 makes it an offence to engage repeatedly or continuously in controlling or coercive behaviour towards a partner or family member, with a sentence of up to five years. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own, similar offences.
Economic abuse
Economic abuse is the part of coercive control that works through money and the things money buys. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 defines it as any behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on a person’s ability to acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or to obtain goods or services, and names it as one of the five kinds of domestic abuse alongside physical, sexual, psychological and controlling behaviour.
Surviving Economic Abuse, the UK charity devoted to the subject, puts it more simply: it is the control of a partner’s or ex-partner’s money, finances and the things that money can buy, such as clothing, transport, food and a place to live. It can happen to anyone with something worth taking, and it very often happens to people who would never have called themselves vulnerable.
What it can look like
Readers of the novel will recognise most of these. None of them, on its own, proves anything; it is the pattern, and the direction of travel, that matters.
- A great deal of attention very early: daily messages, long calls, the sense of having been understood completely by someone you barely know.
- Decisions made for you and presented as care: what to order, where to go, what you need and do not need.
- Friends and family who are somehow always a problem. One is jealous, another has designs on you, a third is a bad influence. Seeing them becomes more trouble than it is worth.
- Jealousy framed as devotion, and questions afterwards about who you spoke to and what was said.
- A joint account “for convenience”, then access to the rest; a tax return taken off your hands; papers to sign that you are told not to worry about.
- Your own trusted advisers, a broker, a solicitor, a long-standing accountant, discredited and replaced.
- A gradual shrinking of your world, until the person controlling it is also the only person in it.
- A feeling of walking on eggshells, and of policing your own behaviour to avoid the next cold silence.
The gap between the person you met and the person you live with is itself a sign. People who control others are usually at their most charming before they have what they want.
Questions people ask
Is it still abuse if I agreed to everything at the time?
Yes. Coercive control works precisely by obtaining agreement: a joint account for convenience, online access to make life easier, a signature on papers you were told not to worry about. Consent given under pressure, deception or a steady erosion of confidence is part of the pattern, not a defence of it.
Does this happen to older people, and to educated, capable people?
Yes. Abuse of people over sixty is common enough that a dedicated UK charity, Hourglass, runs a 24-hour helpline for it, and financial abuse is one of the most frequent forms. Intelligence and professional success are no protection. The people targeted are often chosen because they have something worth taking and a life that looks settled from the outside.
Why is the money so hard to get back?
Because so much of it moves with the victim’s own signature, through joint accounts or trusts set up in both names, and often overseas. Civil courts generally divide what still exists rather than punishing what was taken; police fraud teams have limited reach across borders; and forged documents are often held by third parties who no longer have them.
Surviving Economic Abuse publishes practical guides on what can be done, and Citizens Advice and StepChange can help with debt run up in your name.
Why didn’t she just leave?
It is the question the novel sets out to answer. By the time the pattern is visible from inside, the person’s confidence, friendships and money have usually already been taken, and leaving means facing all three losses at once. The research the book draws on, from the neuroscience of attachment to the study of confidence tricks, suggests that nobody is immune and that recognising it late is the norm, not the exception.
Is From Darkness to Dawn based on a true story?
It is a novel. It was written by a UK psychologist and a journalist, under pen names, and draws on professional experience of how coercive control and economic abuse work and of what recovery looks like. The characters and events are fiction.
Where to find help
All of these are free and confidential, and the list is UK-focused. The novel carries a fuller version at the back, including mental-health and counselling services.
- National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge. 24 hours, every day. 0808 2000 247. nationaldahelpline.org.uk
- Women’s Aid. Live chat, a directory of local services and a survivors’ forum. womensaid.org.uk
- Surviving Economic Abuse. The UK charity dedicated to economic abuse, with practical guides for victim-survivors and for the people supporting them. survivingeconomicabuse.org
- Hourglass. For older people experiencing abuse, including financial abuse. 24-hour helpline 0808 808 8141. wearehourglass.org
- Men’s Advice Line, run by Respect, for men experiencing domestic abuse. 0808 8010 327, Monday to Friday. mensadviceline.org.uk
- Victim Support. Independent support for anyone affected by crime, 24 hours. 0808 16 89 111. victimsupport.org.uk
- Action Fraud. The national reporting centre for fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. actionfraud.police.uk
- Citizens Advice for debt, housing and legal questions, citizensadvice.org.uk, and StepChange for free debt advice, stepchange.org.
- Samaritans, for anyone in emotional distress, 24 hours. 116 123. samaritans.org
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999. If you cannot speak, press 55 when prompted and the operator will know you need help.
This page is general information, not legal or medical advice. Definitions are taken from section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 and section 1 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 at legislation.gov.uk, and from Women’s Aid and Surviving Economic Abuse. Helpline numbers were checked on 6 October 2026.