Advocates are pushing for updated federal legislation that would specifically include “economic abuse,” as a critical first step to addressing a systemic counterpart of domestic violence that is not acknowledged often enough, as reported by The 19th.

Economic abuse can include things like coerced debt, sabotaging a job, and unilateral financial decisions in a marriage. According to Laura Russell, Director of the Domestic Violence Unit at The Legal Aid Society these types of transgressions are “very difficult to prove and rarely prosecuted.”

The 2021 reauthorization of The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) defines economic abuse as “behavior that is coercive, deceptive, or unreasonably controls or restrains a person’s ability to acquire, use, or maintain economic resources to which they are entitled.” The House has passed the bill, and is awaiting action by the Senate.

Russell explained that this language is important because “by giving that recognition, it allows those of us on the state level to argue that VAWA recognizes [economic abuse], so you should too. It’s a first step, and I think it’s a necessary step.”