Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 2017, 29(2): 69-82 (Open access)

"INTRODUCTION: Economic abuse has the potential to have far-reaching consequences for victims, but is largely invisible within discourses on violence against women. While it is
internationally recognised as a pervasive and highly gendered method for abusers to gain and maintain control over women, there is no research specifically on economic abuse in Aotearoa
New Zealand.

AIM: This study aimed to understand the experiences and effects of economic abuse for women in Aotearoa New Zealand, particularly in relation to methods of coercive control, with the
intention of developing risk matrices to be used by practitioners.
METHODS: We conducted a survey with 448 respondents—with 398 the focus of analysis for this article. The survey contained a combination of scaling and open-ended questions.
This article reports findings of a qualitative analysis of aspects from responses to open-ended questions.

FINDINGS: Abusers employed a range of abusive methods to restrict victims’ freedom and exercise domination. These abusive behaviours seemed to follow traditional hegemonic
constructions of masculinity as synonymous with “provider” in that many of these methods relied on the reproduction of gendered stereotypes which subjugate women to a subordinate position in the household. Women experienced a range of adverse emotional impacts as a result of this
abuse.

CONCLUSIONS: We found that, in reality, abusers relied on these stereotypes to justify the appropriation of women’s resources and consequent removal of women’s financial autonomy while, paradoxically, the women described providing for the household on greatly restricted finances—whether through paid or unpaid labour. We have translated these findings into risk matrices to assist the identification of economic abuse.' (Authors' abstract). Record #5569