Coercive control is a frequently hidden form of domestic abuse
that includes physical, sexual, psychological, emotional and
financial abuse of one individual by another.
Figures show coercive control a significant problem
The Bureau of Statistics figures on domestic abuse are shocking.
One in four women and one in eight men have experienced domestic
violence by an intimate partner or family member since the age of
fifteen.
Every nine days a female is murdered by a current or former
partner. Every 29 days a man is killed by someone close to him. One
in six women, and one in nine men, experienced childhood abuse.
(Please see Personal Safety, Australia, ABS, 15
March 2023.)
The law is clear – these are all crimes punishable with
prison sentences. But there is another form of domestic abuse that
does not necessarily leave bruises or broken bones – coercive
control. (Please see my earlier article Domestic coercive control could soon be criminal
in Australia.)
