Largest Australian study reveals victim-survivors support criminalising coercive control
Published on
Female victim-survivors of coercive control overwhelmingly support making it a standalone criminal offence, ground-breaking national research released today (12 December) reveals.
This study, led by Monash University, partnered by researchers at University of Liverpool and Griffith University (Australia), and funded by the Australian Institute of Criminology, is the largest of its kind conducted Australia. It draws on in-depth interviews with 130 victim-survivors of coercive control and provides critical insights into their views on the potential benefits and risks of introducing coercive control as a stand-alone criminal offence.
Coercive and controlling behaviour was made a criminal offence in England and Wales in 2015. In general terms coercive control refers to a pattern of abusive behaviours over time creating fear and denying the victim’s liberty and autonomy. People who use coercive control may be physically abusive as well as using a wide range of other abusive behaviours, such as economic abuse and psychological abuse.
The victim-survivors interviewed for this report identified several anticipated benefits of criminalising coercive control, including:
raising community awareness of the severity and unacceptability of coercive control
increasing safety for women and children
improving police and legal system responses to intimate partner violence
providing improved access to justice and validation for victim-survivors.
However, these victim-survivors were also clear that wider changes to the justice system’s responses to domestic, family and sexual violence were needed if the objectives of any new criminal offences are to be achieved.
Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon (Monash University) who led the project states: “Our research shows that victim-survivors are looking for more than just a new law — they want a whole-of-system response that addresses gaps in training, awareness and support services. Importantly, criminalisation must not inadvertently cause harm to already marginalised communities,’’.
The findings of this study endorse previous work conducted by Professor Sandra Walklate and colleagues conducted since the 2015 legislation was introduced, and that of Dr Ellen Reeves conducted in Australia on the challenges, including the risk of being ‘misidentified’ as the predominant aggressor by the police, which is an exacerbated risk for victim-survivors from marginalised backgrounds such as First Nations women.
Professor Sandra Walklate, Department of Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology at the University of Liverpool, shared: “These findings, rooted in the victim-survivor’s voices, evidence that there are no quick fixes to the ongoing problem of violence against women.”
This study serves as a reminder that for many victim-survivors more law is not the sole answer to the issues they face and that for some victim-survivors, especially those belonging to marginalised communities, the recourse to law can add to the challenges in their lives.
Access the report: The criminalisation of coercive control: A national study of victim‑survivors’ views on the need for, benefits, risks and impacts of criminalisation.