The New State Laws Defining Abuse Without a Single Bruise
Psychology Today | 20.10.2026 22:10
For decades, the legal system treated intimate partner abuse mainly as a series of discrete physical events: a slap, a shove, a broken bone. Although some laws addressing domestic violence have covered certain forms of nonphysical misconduct, including threats, stalking, and harassment, legal protections have historically focused more heavily on identifiable incidents than on sustained patterns of psychological control. Psychological research describes something different: a sustained pattern of control that can cause serious harm without ever leaving a visible injury. The law is only beginning to catch up.
