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Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party.^[1][2][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. 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. Although the concepts of coercion and persuasion are similar, 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

Political authors such as John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, and Ronald Dworkin consider whether governments are inherently coercive.^[5]: 28 In 1919, Max Weber, building on the view of Rudolf von Ihering,^[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] a practice which raises ethical concerns.^[10] Such practices has also been shown to cause moral distress among healthcare staff, especially when staff attitudes toward coercive measures are negative.^[11] To minimize the need for coercion in psychiatric care, various models like Safewards,^[12] as well as Six Core Strategies, have been implemented with promising results.^[13]

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.^[14] 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 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. In 2000, Byman and Waxman defined 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."^[15] Coercion does not in many cases amount to destruction of property or life since compliance is the goal.

• Anderson, Scott A. (n.d.). "Towards a Better Theory of Coercion, and a Use for It" (PDF). The University of Chicago. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2005. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
• Lifton, Robert J. (1961) Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1614276753

Look up coercion, at gunpoint, or at knifepoint in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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• Media related to Coercion at Wikimedia Commons
• Anderson, Scott. "Coercion". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 1095-5054. OCLC 429049174..
• Carter, Barry E. Economic Coercion, Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (subscription required)