Related analysis of the statute and the evidence courts now weigh appears on the Carlton Research hub page for Arizona’s coercive control law (HB 2995).
-palette-2-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph”>Arizona Just Redefined Domestic Violence. Now Comes the Hard Part: Prove It.New state law recognizes abuse without bruises. A forensic behavioral scientist explains why the evidence was there all along, hiding in plain sight in text and social media messages.
PHOENIX, Ariz., August 13, 2026 — Arizona family courts can now find domestic violence where no one was ever touched.
The Alec and Lydia Act (HB 2995), signed by Governor Hobbs on June 22, 2026, writes coercive control into the state’s definition of domestic violence for custody and parenting time cases. Economic abuse. Electronic surveillance. Isolation from family and friends. Harassment through social media channels. Using children as instruments of control. Litigation threats. Gaslighting. Under the new law, a documented pattern of this conduct can trigger a mandatory presumption against awarding the abusive parent any parenting time at all.
The law is named for Alec and Lydia Mater, two Arizona children killed by their father during court-ordered parenting time. Lawmakers concluded the warning signs were present but the legal framework could not see them through an incident-model lens that often fails to recognize patterns of psychological abuse.
The law requires evidence of a pattern, and a pattern, by definition, can only be established through repetition and continuity rather than isolated incidents.
“A singular text message may not look like a system of control under the incident-based model. It may look like normal couple conflict. Yet together, all evidence points to the most dangerous behavioral pattern in domestic life: coercive control,” said Carisa Carlton, M.A., a behavioral scientist and linguistic analyst specializing in forensic coercive control analysis, “The methodology to identify the pattern has long existed. What was missing was a law that recognized it as domestic violence.”
Carlton is one of the first forensic experts to complete a full coercive control evaluation under Arizona’s new statute. Using the same scholarship that shaped coercive control legislation in the United States and abroad, Carlton applies systematic coding grounded in peer-reviewed research to document whether a pattern is present or if the behavior is an anomaly or clustered around particular events. Every finding must meet explicit criteria from a codebook built on foundational literature in the field. In her recent Arizona analysis, an estimated 80 percent of the reviewed record was left uncoded, a deliberately conservative approach designed to distinguish coercive control from high-conflict.
“Conflict is not coercive control,” Carlton said. “Courts need analysis rigorous enough to tell the difference, because getting it wrong in either direction carries serious consequences for families.”
Carlton’s preparation for this moment spans more than two decades. She was mentored by Dr. Evan Stark, the sociologist whose work created the coercive control framework now written into laws worldwide. She served as a subject-matter expert and contributing researcher on a U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women project examining the economic impact of intimate partner violence. She spent 18 months embedded in domestic violence proceedings at a California courthouse studying how victim credibility, competing claims, and the use of children as leverage play out in real courtrooms, followed by a multi-year study of digital coercive control across cultural contexts. She holds a Master of Arts in Demographic and Social Analysis and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Irvine.
Arizona is now one of the few states where coercive control carries this much legal weight, and courts, attorneys, and families are navigating it in real time. Judges must make written findings. Attorneys must present pattern evidence. Victims must document what they have long known but could never prove.
The forensic infrastructure for this law is being built right now, case by case.
About Carisa Carlton, M.A. Carisa Carlton is a behavioral scientist and linguistic analyst who provides forensic coercive control analysis for family court. Her work focuses on making patterns of psychological and emotional abuse visible through systematic coding of records. Parties, advocates, and attorneys may request a consultation at carisacarlton.com.
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