Policing digitally enabled coercive control: challenges in responding to and investigating digital abuse

Digital technologies increasingly mediate coercive control, providing police with new opportunities to evidence patterns of abuse over time. Digital lines of inquiry can corroborate victim–survivor accounts and reveal otherwise hidden patterns of monitoring, surveillance, and restriction. Drawing on a mixed-methods study using police incident data from two UK forces and interviews with police officers, third-sector practitioners, and victim–survivors, this paper examines the challenges of evidencing digitally enabled coercive control (DECC) in policing practice. Findings highlight the frequent misidentification of DECC, the continued focus on isolated incidents rather than cumulative patterns of abuse, and limited officer understanding and confidence across all ranks in identifying, pursuing, preserving, and analysing digital evidence, resulting in missed investigative opportunities. The paper also presents strategies forces have adopted to address these challenges, including dedicated digital investigation roles, digital media investigators, digital toolkits, and scenario-based training. Despite these initiatives, the study emphasises the urgent need for force-wide digital upskilling in DECC, so that recognising, collecting, and investigating digital lines of inquiry becomes part of everyday policing. This paper contributes to the existing body of international literature on the challenges of identifying DECC and pursuing digital lines of inquiry within police forces. It adds the UK perspective to the broader picture of a growing worldwide problem in policing and highlights transferable lessons on the need to embed digital expertise, improve recording and investigative practice, and deliver comprehensive continuous professional development.