Evelyn Nesbit testified for her husband's defense at the 1907 trial, describing Stanford White's assault on her in vivid detail. Her testimony was the emotional and evidentiary cornerstone of the 'dementia Americana' defense. Behavioral analysts studying coercive control note that a victim who testifies to support the legal interests of a person who has also victimized them — when that testimony is given under conditions of financial dependency and social powerlessness — presents a specific forensic credibility challenge distinct from ordinary witness bias. What is the formal term used in coercive control and forensic psychology literature to describe a situation where a victim's public account of their own harm is deployed instrumentally by a third party for that third party's benefit, often without the victim's full autonomous consent?
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