March 2021

The ALS recognises the harm caused by coercive control and the fact that it is often a precursor to more serious intimate violence, but the ALS also considers that coercive control is deeply contextual, subtle and difficult to determine.

Conduct that may be coercive in one relationship may not be in another and as a result, the law must be careful in its application of policy and punishment for what it perceives as coercive control.

The ALS would recommend that the question of criminalising coercive control be re-visited after more comprehensive qualitative research of overseas jurisdictions as well as investing in community education as a primary prevention rather than introducing reactionary legislation.

Click the link below to read our full submission.