We honor the lives of Jennifer Farber Dulos and Jennifer Magnano, two women whose stories pierced the silence surrounding a form of abuse that for too
We honor the lives of Jennifer Farber Dulos and Jennifer Magnano, two women whose stories pierced the silence surrounding a form of abuse that for too long had no name: coercive control.
Because of them—and those who loved them enough to fight in their names—Jennifer’s Law was born in the state of Connecticut.
This law tells the truth that Survivors have known all along:
That abuse isn’t always bruises.
That violence isn’t always loud.
That sometimes the deepest harm is slow, calculated, and cloaked in “love.”
Coercive control is not just emotional manipulation. It is a pattern. A strategy. A cruel, calculated campaign to dominate, isolate, and break the will of a woman.
It is:
Telling her what to wear
Cutting her off from friends and family
Tracking her movements
Stealing her finances and freedom
Undermining her every decision until she forgets she ever had choices
Jennifer’s Law recognizes all of this as real abuse. And real abuse deserves real protection.
This law does something sacred:
It names what so many Survivors were told to ignore.
It believes what so many professionals overlooked.
It protects what so many systems refused to see.
And it sends a clear message to the world:
We will no longer require a woman to be black-eyed or broken-boned to believe she is in danger.
She deserves safety the moment she feels unsafe.
She deserves rights the moment someone begins to take them.
She deserves dignity at every stage of her fight to be free.
Jennifer’s Law is a love letter to all those whose cries were too quiet, too complicated, too misunderstood.
To Jennifer Farber Dulos and Jennifer Magnano—
We carry your stories like lanterns into the darkness.
We honor your lives not just in memory, but in movement.
May every law, every policy, and every courtroom be touched by the truth your stories revealed.
We will not stop.
We will not be silenced.
We will not be controlled.
We survive. And we rise.
In 2021, “Jennifer’s Law” was enacted, expanding the definition of domestic violence to include coercive control. Named in honor of Jennifer Farber Dulos and Jennifer Magnano, the law acknowledges the profound impact of non-physical abuse .Wikipedia
