"When I felt like no one understood what I was going through, Crystal helped me understand it myself and gave me the words to finally articulate it, especially in court. She gave me the clarity and tools I needed to stabilize, advocate for myself and my children and move forward with confidence."
~JACKI F., SURVIVOR
RESEARCH · LIVED EXPERIENCE · POLICY
When coercive control turns financial,
what happens next matters.
I study financial coercive control, how institutions respond to it, and how those responses can shape a survivor's ability to achieve safety and long-term stability after leaving.
My work sits at the intersection of survivor lived experience, research, and policy, examining what survivors are experiencing, what the evidence tells us, and how institutional responses can better support safety and long-term stability.
The goal isn't simply to understand the problem. It's to improve what happens next.
FINANCIAL
COERCIVE CONTROL
Examining patterns of economic abuse and coercive control.
INSTITUTIONAL
RESPONSE
Analyzing laws, policies, and practices that shape outcomes.
FAMILY
COURT
Understanding how courtroom decisions impact safety and stability.
WORK WITH CRYSTAL
Two Paths. One Mission.
Whether you're navigating family court or working to build better systems,
let's create change together.
FEATURED RESEARCH
When Domestic Abuse Turns Financial:
the Family Court Response
How family court responses to financial coercive control in single-income marriages can shape economic stability, access to justice, and a survivor's ability to rebuild.
THE ANALYSIS
01: WHEN CONTROL TURNS FINANCIAL
How financial coercive control can shape a survivor's economic position as she attempts to leave.
02: THE INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE
How family court responds when survivors seek financial stability and relief during separation and divorce.
03: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
How those responses can affect economic stability, access to justice, and a survivor's ability to safely separate and rebuild.
ABOUT CRYSTAL
Research is made up of lived experience, and it should inform policy and professional practice.
Crystal Fedeli is a social researcher and policy analyst examining financial coercive control, institutional response, and how those responses shape a survivor's ability to achieve safety and long-term stability after leaving abuse.
Her work examines what survivors are experiencing, identifies patterns across those experiences, and considers what those findings tell us about the systems survivors encounter. The goal is to use what we learn to inform policy and professional practice so institutional responses better reflect what survivors actually experience and need.
Crystal works directly with individuals navigating family court and with institutions through speaking, training, consulting, and research.
She is also an award-winning nonprofit Founder and Executive Director, of You Made a Way, a 501(c)(3) supporting women as they navigate the financial and systemic consequences of abuse after leaving.
She has left. Now she has to find a way forward. We make a way together.
THE Crystal Fedeli PODCAST
Real experiences. Research.
And what we should do with what we know.
People are experiencing real problems. Research can help us understand why they’re happening, what the evidence tells us, and what we can do differently.
On The Crystal Fedeli Podcast, Crystal examines issues people are experiencing in real life, looks at what the peer-reviewed research and existing literature tell us, and brings those findings into conversation with survivors, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
The goal is to move beyond simply identifying what’s wrong, to understand what the evidence tells us about possible solutions and how those solutions can inform policy and professional practice.
Because policy shouldn’t be based on what we think people are experiencing. It should be informed by the evidence of what they actually are.
"Crystal brings clarity to complex issues and centers the voices that too often go unheard."
~SURVIVOR
Engaging with Crystal’s work brought a level of clarity I had not experienced before. She brings clarity to something that is incredibly difficult to make sense of.
~SURVIVOR
Ready for what comes next?
WORK WITH CRYSTAL.
Whether you're navigating family court after abuse or looking to strengthen how your organization understands and responds to coercive control, there's a way to work together.
Clarity. Strategy. A way forward.
AWARD RECIPIENT
2026 Nonprofit of the Year,
Mayoral Award Recipient
AS FEATURED IN
NJ Spotlight
News
SPOKE AT
3rd Annual Congressional
Reception
COMMUNITY REACH
15,000+ Followers
Across Social Platforms