Queensland's new coercive control laws see more than 50 charges in six months

ABC NEWS (Australia)

More than 50 charges of coercive control have been laid in the six months since it was criminalised in Queensland, but advocates and legal experts believe more training is needed to better identify abusive behaviour. CEO of Women's Legal Service Queensland Nadia Bromley is hopeful the numbers are a step in the right direction.

Transcript

00:00Look, it is an encouraging sign.

00:04Obviously one of the big concerns when the legislation was brought in as May was that

00:09it was not going to be prosecuted because of evidentiary issues or others, that women

00:13wouldn't see the justice that they were seeking, but that hasn't been our experience so far.

00:17Can you remind us what coercive control is?

00:20Of course.

00:22And of course coercive control isn't where we've started using and the offence is quite

00:25new, but unfortunately the behaviours that make up coercive control have been around

00:29for a long time.

00:30So really when we think about those behaviours there's four kinds of things they're seeking

00:34to do.

00:35So coercive control is repeated behaviours that hurt, humiliate, isolate or frighten someone

00:42in order to control them.

00:43So you're happy with the number of charges, happy is perhaps the wrong word, number of

00:47charges in Queensland on this so far.

00:50Is the number of victims coming forward reflective though of the true number of people who experience

00:55coercive control?

00:56Tragically no.

00:58What we know from the thousands of women we see every year is that coercive control sits

01:02under much of the domestic and family violence we see in our state.

01:05So we know we see about 45,000 domestic violence orders a year and that is nowhere near the number

01:11of reports we would expect to see.

01:13So 50 charges of coercive control, any convictions so far?

01:17There have been two as we understand it, which is encouraging.

01:21And I think much of this is just about public awareness and seeing that people are being

01:26held to account for these really harmful behaviours.

01:28So there is more awareness then among people about what coercive control is and whether they

01:33are a victim of it?

01:33That's right.

01:34And I think we've moved a long way to move just away from that physical harm.

01:39Which of course in itself is difficult but people understand more and more about the

01:43other kinds of abuse, so financial abuse, control of where people go, control of social media,

01:49tracking.

01:50There's a lot more awareness about those kinds of behaviours that well and truly sit within

01:54this criminal offence.

01:55Nadia, how hard is coercive control to prove?

01:59Look, unlike physical violence, coercive control is more difficult to prove because we need

02:04to establish a course of conduct so it's about gathering evidence over time and showing

02:08that pattern of behaviour.

02:10But people are getting better that things are people can do so they can collect financial

02:14records, they can keep text messages, they can take screenshots of social media and people

02:18are becoming more aware that although it is harmful and traumatic to keep these records,

02:24that's the way that prosecutions can succeed.

02:26And is that where more training by authorities is needed for them to identify the signs and

02:32then be better at collecting that evidence to present in court?

02:36Absolutely.

02:37And look, we all have a role to play so certainly agencies can get better about identifying when

02:43coercive control is being committed, by whom it's being committed and supporting people

02:47to make sure those prosecutions are successful.

02:49But also in the community it's about calling out behaviour and supporting people we think might

02:54need help if they're in a coercive relationship.

02:56Is there also an issue of manipulation of the system by alleged perpetrators that they can

03:02turn situations around and that authorities need to be able to identify such situations?

03:08There certainly is and we know that there have been issues in our state and across the country

03:13in the misidentification of victims as the people who are perpetrators of violence.

03:18And that happens for a range of reasons but given this is such a serious criminal offence

03:22with a 14 year penalty of imprisonment as a maximum, it's so important that care is taken

03:27to train those people responding to violence and to train those prosecuting to make sure

03:31that the right people are being held to account for their behaviour.

03:34So we've been talking about the number of coercive control charges laid in Queensland.

03:39What's happening in other parts of the country?

03:42We mentioned New South Wales a moment ago and I note that today the Victorian opposition

03:46is introducing a bill to Parliament to criminalise coercive control.

03:51Yes, look across the country it's recognised as a very insidious form of violence and is

03:56prosecuted in different ways.

03:57But as you know, New South Wales and Queensland are the only states so far to have a stand-alone

04:02offence of coercive control.

04:04And certainly initial evidence has suggested that Queensland is one of the most active police

04:08services in upholding that.

04:10Nadia Bromley, thank you so much.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended