In order to support the continuous education of employees in institutions responsible for helping women in situations of violence, the Judicial Academy and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) held an expert meeting "Life in a cage without bars – Institutional response to the phenomenon of coercive control in the family – partnership relations". The meeting was attended by judges, prosecutors who lead groups for coordination and cooperation of competent institutions in cases of domestic violence, representatives of social welfare centers and police officers.

The participants of the meeting had the opportunity to hear expert presentations by Prof. Dr. Anita Lauri Korajlija, professor at the Department of Health and Clinical Psychology, University of Zagreb, and Dr. Tanja Ignjatović, psychologist and expert at the Autonomous Women's Center. Dr. Lauri Korajlija spoke about the phenomenon of coercive control in the presentation "Life in a prison without bars – coercive control and what love has to do with it", while Dr. Ignjatović spoke about the abuse of children in order to control current and former partners.

Coercive control is a form of violence that includes limiting the victim's social contacts, tracking their movements, controlling their daily activities and managing their lives in detail. Experiences in the criminal prosecution of coercive control, as well as in recognizing, proving and dealing with cases of this form of violence, were presented by experts from Scotland, where coercive control has been a special criminal offense for five years – Dr. Emma Forbes, deputy public prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service of Scotland and national manager for problems of domestic violence and Dr. Milena Tripković, professor of criminology at the University of Edinburgh and deputy director of the Scottish Center for Research on Crime and Justice.

This event was organized on the occasion of the global campaign "16 days of activism combating violence against women", and within the project "Let's stop violence – Let's achieve equality". The project is jointly implemented by UN agencies in Serbia: UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Serbia, with the support of the Government of Sweden.