SYDNEY, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Australia's state of New South Wales (NSW) has moved one step further to outlaw coercive control as a stand-alone offence, as a bill has been introduced to the state parliament on Wednesday for a second reading.
The state government said the NSW Government's Crimes Legislation Amendment (Coercive Control) Bill 2022 will create an offence of coercive control with appropriate safeguards in the Crimes Act 1900. The stand-alone offence will carry a maximum sentence of seven years in jail and consists of five elements to be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
If passed, NSW will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to have a dedicated standalone offence of coercive control.
Coercive control is a form of domestic abuse that involves patterns of behavior that have the cumulative effect of denying victim-survivors their autonomy and independence.
It is currently dealt with by civil law in Australia and an increasing number of people and domestic violence groups are calling for coercive control to be criminalized.
According to the 2016 Personal Safety Survey unveiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, an estimated 2.2 million adult women and 1.4 million adult men have experienced emotional abuse by a partner at some point since the age of 15.
"We made a clear commitment to develop, publicly consult on and deliver this piece of legislation to make NSW a safer state for women and deter domestic and sexual violence,"said NSW Minister for Women's Safety and the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence Natalie Ward.
NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman said coercive control is difficult to identify, legislate and prosecute, and the bill has gone through extensive consideration and unprecedented consultation. The authorities also learnt from overseas jurisdictions' experiences and built a bespoke offence that best reflects the diverse nature of the society in NSW.
NSW Bar Association President Gabrielle Bashir said criminalizing coercive control will increase the ability of the criminal justice system to respond to patterns of behavior that are not currently captured adequately by the law.
"Setting the bar at intention rather than a lower mental state will limit the spectre of the offence being used as a weapon against the very people that it is designed to protect. This is an important safeguard to reduce the offence being misapplied to already marginalized communities and persons in intimate relationships who are in need of the protection of the law." ■
