Exit

The third boundary concerns the capacity to leave. A relation may be formally voluntary while being practically inescapable. When exit is nominally available but realistically foreclosed — by economic dependence, by the absence of alternatives, by the structuring of the situation itself — a boundary is approached.

A structure crosses this boundary when exit is formally possible but practically inaccessible. Formal freedom to leave means little when the cost of leaving exceeds what a person can bear. The presence of a theoretical exit does not establish the presence of a real one.