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What Is Jennifer’s Law? The New Legislation Helps Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
Authorities believe the Connecticut moms lost their lives at the hands of their estranged husbands, now legislation in the state is aimed at preventing similar tragedies.
Two Connecticut moms suspected of meeting the same grim fate are the inspiration behind a domestic violence law aimed at protecting others.
Jennifer’s Law — which went into effect in 2021 in the state of Connecticut — is named after Jennifer Dulos and Jennifer Magnano, two moms believed to have both lost their lives at the hands of their estranged husbands. They are one of the many victims of intimate partner violence, a form of abuse often highlighted in the Oxygen series Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins, which returns for Season 3 on August 17 at 8 p.m.
The law is distinctive because it expands the definition of domestic violence in the state to include a prevalent, but lesser known form of abuse known as coercive control.
“Coercive control and controlling behavior, in general, is the crux of domestic violence," Karen Foley O'Connor, Executive Director of The Network Against Domestic Abuse, told local station WTIC after the law’s passage. "What’s good about this bill is that we now have [an] agreed-upon language to define it here in the state.”
What is Coercive Control?
As the Domestic Violence Network explained, this insidious form of abuse can be extremely dangerous because it can occur without the intended target even realizing it.
Laura Richards, a criminal behavioral analyst who once ran the Homicide Prevention Unit for the New Scotland Yard, explained the concept of coercive control to Oxygen.com in 2019 as someone trying to achieve “utter domination” over another person. This can be done through a range of behaviors or actions that can deprive the victim of their most basic rights and needs.
“The behaviors can be very different because it depends on the victim,” Richards said. “It’s very idiosyncratic to them and tailor-made as a plan to target them.”
What does Jennifer’s Law do?
Jennifer’s Law now provides specific examples of what that abuse can look like, whether it’s isolating the victim from family and friends, depriving them of their basic necessities, controlling their behavior, finances or communication with others or using threats of violence to intimate or control their behavior.
Coercive control can also extend to threatening or committing animal cruelty as an intimidation tactic, forcing a victim to perform a sex act, or threatening to release sexual images all in an attempt to maintain their power over their victim, according to the Office of Legislative Research.
“Among other things, the law allows victims subject to coercive control by a family or household member to be eligible for civil restraining orders,” the office explained. “It also makes criminal violation of a protection order a ‘family violence crime’ in certain circumstances.”
In short, victims of coercive control in the state can now get a restraining order without needing proof of physical violence.
The law also protects a person’s right to testify or appear in court remotely and does not require those with restraining orders in place to appear in court alongside their abuser.
Finally, the law created a grant program aimed at providing those in need with free legal assistance.
Who is Jennifer Dulos?
The law was inspired by two Connecticut moms alleged to be victims of domestic violence. Dulos’ case received national headlines when the mom of five vanished from her New Canaan home on May 24, 2019, amid a heated divorce and custody battle with her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos.
Although her body has never been found, she was declared legally dead in 2023, according to The Associated Press. Authorities believe Fotis ambushed the 50-year-old in the garage of her home after she dropped off the couple’s children at school. Detectives later tracked down trash Fotis had thrown away and discovered bloody clothing matching Jennifer’s DNA, zip ties and ponchos, according to CBS News.
Fotis was charged with murder, but took his own life in January 2020 before the case would ever go to trial.
His girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution earlier this year after prosecutors argued she helped cover up the brutal crime.
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Who is Jennifer Magnano?
Magnano was shot and killed in her Terryville, Connecticut home by her estranged husband as her children looked on in 2007, according to Inside Edition.
Magnano had returned to the home with two of her three children in an attempt to collect some of the family’s belongings. Although she had police search the home before she went inside, her husband Scott had been hiding in his mother’s apartment on the property. After authorities left, he ambushed her and held her at gunpoint, before allegedly firing the fatal shots.
“I started running down the stairs when I heard the shot,” her son, David, told the news outlet. “I was told that he shot her five or six times. I only remember one, everything after that I went black and I've been told I saw it. I don't remember it.”
Jennifer made the decision to leave her husband four months earlier after enduring years of alleged abuse.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Scott fled in the family’s van and shot himself.
State Senator Alex Kasser, who drafted the law, is hoping the new legislation will help prevent similar tragedies in the years to come.
“While it's called ‘Jennifers’ Law,’ plural, it's really intended to honor all of the women and children who have lost their lives, who've been harmed, who've been injured and the survivors who are still fighting for their freedom for the right to be left alone,” she told Inside Edition.
