Coercive Control & Criminal Change
By Ciara Van Zyl
As a nation Australia prides itself on closing the gap of gender inequality, and as of 2025 the Queensland government has found new ways to not only empower women but to further close this gap.
On July 1st 2024, Coercive control became a stand-alone criminal offence, of which one can face a sentence of up to 14 years imprisonments for committing.
What is it?
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
According to Wide Bay Hospital, coercive control is defined as “perpetrators using patterns of abusive behaviours over time in a way that creates fear and denies liberty”.
This legislation, while only coming into force in 2025, aims to acknowledge that domestic violence can take many forms that are not solely physical. It aspires to encourage victims to come forward before the violence manifests physically through educating them on the signs of cohesive control.
Read more here.
What is it for?
Some of the many benefits of criminalisation include preventing abuse from escalating, filling the gaps in some of the domestic violence laws, and increasing the general protection of people who experience violence in their homes where they are meant to feel safe.
Issues with enforcing it
Alternatively, as many newly introduced laws, this offence carries with it much grey area. The elements of the crime are very much subjective from situation to situation, so while it is wonderful to see the law progress further to help victims of domestic violence, it will be fairly difficult to prove someone’s continued behaviour has been abusive when, due to the lack of physicality, it looks like hearsay.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Another issue that arises is how one goes about reporting a crime like this? Due to the simplistic nature of this crime, it does not seem “too bad” when put on paper, perhaps causing those suffering to not even bother making the reports. Or will people abuse the lightness of the conviction?
The idea of coercive control is to repeatedly silence people you are trying to control by abusing them through means that aren’t necessarily physical such as financial abuse, isolation and monitoring them.
Furthermore, this law puts into perspective what this can look like to urge those suffering to come forward and feel like they have a space to do so but it also aims to educate those who may be participating in such acts the severity of the damage they are causing before it gets to a harmful ending.
Ultimetly coercive control falls part of just another anecdote against domestic violence, which we continuously strive to eradicate and give victims their voices back.
Because as Malala Yousafzai Boldy said: “ we realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced”, and we must make sure we never stay silent in the presence of abuse, no matter how small it seems.
Read more here