Is Coercive Control Going To Become A Criminal Offence In Queensland?
Coercive control is a form of domestic violence in which a perpetrator uses behaviours that dominate and control their victim. Some common examples of coercive control are isolating a person from their family and friends, monitoring a person’s time, movements and communication, repeatedly putting someone down and other acts that intimidate or restrict a person. In Queensland, coercive control is not currently captured in the Criminal Code and therefore the victims of this behaviour are not protected. There has been increasing pressure on the Queensland Government to criminalise this behaviour which has resulted in the Queensland Government now taking steps to do so. This does however raise complex questions of how the laws should be defined and particularly how to enforce any legislation that is contemplated to criminalise coercive control if it is made an offence. Recommendations have been made to the Government that Queensland take a staged approach to criminalising coerci...