Coercion

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For other uses, see Coercion (disambiguation)."Duress" redirects here. For other uses, see Duress (disambiguation).

Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner by the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. [1] [2] [ need quotation to verify ] [3] It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to induce a desired response. These actions may include extortion, blackmail, or even torture and sexual assault.

Contents

Common-law systems codify the act of violating a law while under coercion as a duress crime.[ citation needed ]

Coercion used as leverage may force victims to act in a way contrary to their own interests. Coercion can involve not only the infliction of bodily harm, but also psychological abuse (the latter intended to enhance the perceived credibility of the threat). The threat of further harm may also lead to the acquiescence of the person being coerced.

The concepts of coercion and persuasion are similar, but various factors distinguish the two. These include the intent, the willingness to cause harm, the result of the interaction, and the options available to the coerced party. [4] : 126 

John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Ronald Dworkin, and other political authors argue that the state is coercive. [5] : 28  In 1919, Max Weber (1864–1920), building on the view of Ihering (1818–1892), [6] defined a state as "a human community that (successfully) claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force". [7] [8] Morris argues that the state can operate through incentives rather than coercion. [5] : 42  Healthcare systems may use informal coercion to make a patient adhere to a doctor's treatment plan. Under certain circumstances, medical staff may use physical coercion to treat a patient involuntarily. [9]

Overview

The purpose of coercion is to substitute one's aims with weaker ones that the aggressor wants the victim to have. For this reason, many social philosophers have considered coercion as the polar opposite to freedom. [10]

Various forms of coercion are distinguished: first on the basis of the kind of injury threatened, second according to its aims and scope, and finally according to its effects, from which its legal, social, and ethical implications mostly depend.

Physical

Physical coercion is the most commonly considered form of coercion, where the content of the conditional threat is the use of force against a victim, their relatives or property. An often used example is "putting a gun to someone's head" (at gunpoint) or putting a "knife under the throat" (at knifepoint or cut-throat) to compel action under the threat that non-compliance may result in the attacker harming or even killing the victim. These are so common that they are also used as metaphors for other forms of coercion.

Armed forces in many countries use firing squads to maintain discipline and intimidate the masses, or opposition, into submission or silent compliance. However, there also are nonphysical forms of coercion, where the threatened injury does not immediately imply the use of force. Byman and Waxman (2000) define coercion as "the use of threatened force, including the limited use of actual force to back up the threat, to induce an adversary to behave differently than it otherwise would." [11] Coercion does not in many cases amount to destruction of property or life since compliance is the goal.

Pain compliance

This section is an excerpt from Pain compliance.[ edit ]

Pain compliance is the use of painful stimulus to control or direct an organism.

The purpose of pain compliance is to direct the actions of the subject, and to this end, the pain is lessened or removed when compliance is achieved. This provides incentive to the subject to carry out the action required. [12]

The stimulus can be manual through brute force and placing pressure on pain-sensitive areas on the body. Painful hyperextension or hyperflexion on joints is also used. [13] Tools such as a whip, a baton, an electroshock weapon or use chemicals such as tear gas or pepper spray are commonly used as well. [14]

Psychological

In psychological coercion, the threatened injury regards the victim's relationships with other people. The most obvious example is blackmail , where the threat consists of the dissemination of damaging information. However, many other types are possible e.g. "emotional blackmail", which typically involves threats of rejection from or disapproval by a peer-group, or creating feelings of guilt/obligation via a display of anger or hurt by someone whom the victim loves or respects.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Definition of coercion". Merriam-Webster. December 2023. the act, process, or power of coercing
  2. ↑ Schelling, Thomas C. (1966). Arms and Influence. Yale University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt5vm52s. ISBN   978-0-300-00221-8. JSTOR   j.ctt5vm52s.
  3. ↑ Pape, Robert A. (1996). Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (1 ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 4. ISBN   978-0-8014-3134-0. JSTOR   10.7591/j.ctt1287f6v. 'Coercion' means efforts to change the behavior of a state by manipulating costs and benefits.
  4. ↑ Powers, Penny (12 June 2007). "Persuasion and Coercion: A Critical Review of Philosophical and Empirical Approaches". HEC Forum. 19 (2): 125–143. doi:10.1007/s10730-007-9035-4. ISSN   0956-2737. PMID   17694994. S2CID   32041658.
  5. 1 2 Morris, Christopher W. (January 2012). "State Coercion and Force". Social Philosophy and Policy. 29 (1): 28–49. doi:10.1017/S0265052511000094. ISSN   0265-0525. S2CID   143472087.
  6. ↑ Turner, Stephen; Factor, Regis (4 April 2014) [1987]. "Decisionism and Politics: Weber as Constitutional Theorist". In Whimster, Sam; Lash, Scott (eds.). Max Weber, Rationality and Modernity (reprint ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. p. 337. ISBN   9781317833369 . Retrieved 28 March 2023. The state, as Ihering defined it, is an association that is distinguished as a type of association by its claim of an exclusive right to exercise certain forms of coercion.
  7. ↑ Quoted in: Stanger, Allison (27 October 2009). "State Power in a Privatized World". One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy. Yale University Press. p. 45. ISBN   9780300156324 . Retrieved 28 March 2023. In Max Weber's classic definition, the state is 'a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a territory.'
  8. ↑ Weber, Max (1919) [28 January 1919]. "Politics as a Vocation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2023. In the past, the most varied institutions - beginning with the sib - have known the use of physical force as quite normal. Today, however, we have to say that a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.
  9. ↑ Hotzy, Florian; Jaeger, Matthias (2016). "Clinical Relevance of Informal Coercion in Psychiatric Treatment—A Systematic Review". Frontiers in Psychiatry. 7: 197. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00197 . ISSN   1664-0640. PMC   5149520 . PMID   28018248.
  10. ↑ Bhatia, K. L. (2010). Textbook on Legal Language and Legal Writing. Universal Law Publishing. ISBN   978-81-7534-894-3.
  11. ↑ Byman, Daniel L.; Waxman, Matthew C.: Kosovo and the Great Air Power Debate, International Security , Vol. 24, No. 4 (Spring, 2000), pp. 5–38.
  12. ↑ Terrill, William; Paoline, Eugene A. (March 2013). "Examining Less Lethal Force Policy and the Force Continuum: Results From a National Use-of-Force Study". Police Quarterly. 16 (1): 38–65. doi:10.1177/1098611112451262. S2CID   154365926.
  13. ↑ "USMC Martial Arts Gray Belt Instructor Manual" . Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Simpson, Fiona (2 March 2020). "Fall in YOI staff linked to restraint increase". Children and Young People Now. 2020 (3): 14–15. doi:10.12968/cypn.2020.3.14. S2CID   253113380.

Related Research Articles

The right of self-defense is the right for people to use reasonable or defensive force, for the purpose of defending one's own life (self-defense) or the lives of others, including, in certain circumstances, the use of deadly force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extortion</span> Criminal offense of obtaining benefit through coercion

Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded threats in order to obtain an unfair business advantage is also a form of extortion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultimatum</span> Final demand backed up by a threat

An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests. As such, the time allotted is usually short, and the request is understood not to be open to further negotiation. The threat which backs up the ultimatum can vary depending on the demand in question and on the other circumstances.

In jurisprudence, duress or coercion refers to a situation whereby a person performs an act as a result of violence, threat, or other pressure against the person. Black's Law Dictionary defines duress as "any unlawful threat or coercion used... to induce another to act [or not act] in a manner [they] otherwise would not [or would]". Duress is pressure exerted upon a person to coerce that person to perform an act they ordinarily would not perform. The notion of duress must be distinguished both from undue influence in the civil law. In criminal law, duress and necessity are different defenses.

Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monopoly on violence</span> Core legal concept and definition of a state

In political philosophy, a monopoly on violence or monopoly on the legal use of force is the property of a polity that is the only entity in its jurisdiction to legitimately use force, and thus the supreme authority of that area.

In economics and business ethics, a coercive monopoly is a firm that is able to raise prices and make production decisions without the risk that competition will arise to draw away their customers. A coercive monopoly is not merely a sole supplier of a particular kind of good or service, but it is a monopoly where there is no opportunity to compete with it through means such as price competition, technological or product innovation, or marketing; entry into the field is closed. As a coercive monopoly is securely shielded from the possibility of competition, it is able to make pricing and production decisions with the assurance that no competition will arise. It is a case of a non-contestable market. A coercive monopoly has very few incentives to keep prices low and may deliberately price gouge consumers by curtailing production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intimidation</span> Intentional behaviour meant to cause a person humiliation, embarrassment, and discomfort

Intimidation is a behaviour and legal wrong which usually involves deterring or coercing an individual by threat of violence. It is in various jurisdictions a crime and a civil wrong (tort). Intimidation is similar to menacing, coercion, terrorizing and assault in the traditional sense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychological torture</span> Type of torture

Psychological torture or mental torture or emotional torture is a type of torture that relies primarily on psychological effects, and only secondarily on any physical harm inflicted. Although not all psychological torture involves the use of physical violence, there is a continuum between psychological torture and physical torture. The two are often used in conjunction with one another and often overlap in practice, with the fear and pain induced by physical torture often resulting in long-term psychological effects, and many forms of psychological torture involving some form of pain or coercion.

Duress in English law is a complete common law defence, operating in favour of those who commit crimes because they are forced or compelled to do so by the circumstances, or the threats of another. The doctrine arises not only in criminal law but also in civil law, where it is relevant to contract law and trusts law.

Anarchist law is a term variously used to describe the apparent norms regarding behavior and decision-making operative within an anarchist community from the perspective of a law-normative viewpoint. Although many anarchists would consider "anarchist law" simply synonymous with natural law, others contend law as implied in anarchy by outside observers would have additional, unique elements. Over the course of the last two hundred years as anarchism has grown and evolved to include diverse strains, there have been different conceptions of "anarchist law" produced and discussed, or used in practice by anarchist networks such as Peoples' Global Action or Indymedia.

Marital coercion was a defence to most crimes under English criminal law and under the criminal law of Northern Ireland. It is similar to duress. It was abolished in England and Wales by section 177 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which came into force on 13 May 2014. The abolition does not apply in relation to offences committed before that date.

In a notable study of power conducted by social psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven in 1959, power is divided into five separate and distinct forms. They identified those five bases of power as coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, and expert. This was followed by Raven's subsequent addition in 1965 of a sixth separate and distinct base of power: informational power.

Reproductive coercion is a collection of behaviors that interfere with decision-making related to reproductive health. These behaviors are meant to maintain power and control related to reproductive health by a current, former, or hopeful intimate or romantic partner, but they can also be perpetrated by parents or in-laws. Coercive behaviors infringe on individuals' reproductive rights and reduce their reproductive autonomy.

Controlling behavior in relationships are behaviors exhibited by a individual who seeks to gain and maintain control over another person. Abusers may utilize tactics such as intimidation or coercion, and may seek personal gain, personal gratification, and the enjoyment of exercising power and control. The victims of this behavior are often subject to psychological, physical, sexual, or financial abuse.

In political philosophy, a throffer is a proposal that mixes an offer with a threat which will be carried out if the offer is not accepted. The term was first used in print by political philosopher Hillel Steiner; while other writers followed, it has not been universally adopted and it is sometimes considered synonymous with carrot and stick. Though the threatening aspect of a throffer need not be obvious, or even articulated at all, an overt example is: "Kill this man and receive £100; fail to kill him and I'll kill you."

Compellence is a form of coercion that attempts to get an actor to change its behavior through threats to use force or the actual use of limited force. Compellence can be more clearly described as "a political-diplomatic strategy that aims to influence an adversary's will or incentive structure. It is a strategy that combines threats of force, and, if necessary, the limited and selective use of force in discrete and controlled increments, in a bargaining strategy that includes positive inducements. The aim is to induce an adversary to comply with one's demands, or to negotiate the most favorable compromise possible, while simultaneously managing the crisis to prevent unwanted military escalation."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rape in Islamic law</span> Sexual violation as interpreted in Islamic theological jurisprudence

In Islam, human sexuality is governed by Islamic law, also known as Sharia. Accordingly, sexual violation is regarded as a violation of moral and divine law. Islam divides claims of sexual violation into 'divine rights' and 'interpersonal rights' : the former requiring divine punishment and the latter belonging to the more flexible human realm.

Sexual consent plays an important role in laws regarding rape, sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence. In a court of law, whether or not the alleged victim had freely given consent, and whether or not they were deemed to be capable of giving consent, can determine whether the alleged perpetrator is guilty of rape, sexual assault or some other form of sexual misconduct.

In international relations, coercion refers to the imposition of costs by a state on other states and non-state actors to prevent them from taking an action (deterrence) or to compel them to take an action (compellence). Coercion frequently takes the form of threats or the use of limited military force. It is commonly seen as analytically distinct from persuasion, brute force, or full-on war.

References

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