Australia: NSW Labor proposal could see domestic violence perpetrators jailed for up to 10 years for coercive control

Submitted by Mastodon on Sat, 2020-09-19 11:18

Article here. Excerpt:

'Domestic violence perpetrators could be jailed for up to 10 years under proposed new coercive control laws set to be introduced to New South Wales Parliament next week.

The bill, being put forward by the NSW Labor Opposition, is the first attempt by a major party on the Australian mainland to criminalise the dangerous behaviours underpinning many abusive relationships.

Sometimes referred to as "intimate terrorism", coercive control is a form of domestic abuse in which a perpetrator uses a system of behaviours to dominate and control victims.

This includes isolating them from their friends and family, enforcing rigid rules, humiliating or insulting them or monitoring their movements.

As a result, victims often report feeling trapped and helpless.'

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This'd be hard to prove -- unless you take testimony as sufficient evidence to send someone to jail for 10 years...

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2020-09-19 15:57

If the bill enacts a law that only requires the apprehension of controlling behaviours in the victim (i.e. subjective evidence of feeling controlled) then anyone could fall foul of this kind of law.

In reality, couples tend to divide responsibility for various roles in the household. As men are the major wage earns in most relationships, payment of income into the males bank account at first instance rather than a joint account, could be construed as "controlling" behaviour.

Thus the evidence would support controlling behaviour both in material evidence (bank accounts) and in apprehension of being controlled (victims subjective evidence). So men in very equal relationships could be convicted of coersive control.

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Submitted by rabel111 on Mon, 2020-09-21 04:34