Chitra Raghavan

Dr. Raghavan studies tactics of abuse used in intimate partner violence, sex trafficking, and sexual assault. In addition to physical violence, many enforcers/abusers use coercive control to achieve their means. Coercive control can include tactics such as isolating the victim in concert with intimidation, degradation, microregulation, and threats to achieve their means. She has examined how coercion operates across heterosexual and gay populations, as well as across different cultures including Brazil, Morocco, and Spain. A second area of Dr. Raghavan’s expertise is measuring traumatic stress that result from violence and coercive control. She has over 40 journal articles, two books, and over 100 conference presentations on these topics. Her forensic practice mirrors her research and she conducts forensic evaluations for immigration, civil and criminal cases. Her research in trauma bonding has resulted in case law in New York State. She believes in the value of engaging with the arts and with diverse cultures in higher education. She has lead study abroad programs to Morocco examining gender and non-Western feminism and currently leads a program examining culture, healing, and psychopathology in Bali, Indonesia. Dr. Raghavan received her Ph.D. in Community and Clinical Psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign in 1998 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine. She received her B.A. in French Language and Literature and Psychology from Smith College in 1992. Prior to joining the John Jay faculty in 2002, she worked as a research scientist at CASA, Columbia University.