The Power and Control Wheel describes domestic abuse - for victims, offenders, practitioners in the criminal justice system, and the general public. The source for the contents of the wheel is the experience of battered women, and includes the most common abusive behaviors or tactics that were used against these women.
Because battering is just one form of domestic abuse, power and control is the term used at the center of the wheel, to describe the pattern of actions an abuser uses to intentionally control or dominate his intimate partner. These abusive behaviors are the spokes of the wheel, and physical and sexual violence holds it all together, comprising the rim of the wheel.
©2012 North Memorial Health Care
