Criminalising Coercive Control: An Introduction

Abstract

Novel criminal offences introduced in England and Wales in 2015, and in Scotland and Ireland in 2018, criminalise non-physical abuse in the context of family relationships in distinctive ways: they criminalise conduct that causes, or is intended to cause, psychological or economic harm without necessarily requiring that a victim sustain physical injury or fear death or serious physical harm. In Tasmania (Australia) related offences had been introduced a decade earlier. These significant and distinctive extensions of the criminal law apply to certain current or past familial relationships and supplement other criminal legislation that penalises physical assault, stalking or other offending against intimate partners or other family members. The new offences were designed to protect human rights by addressing gaps in the criminal law, gaps which permitted significant harmful activities to previously go unpunished. In the context of the ongoing debate about how best to tackle the problem of family violence, these developments raise significant legal issues—theoretical and practical—in relation to how best to protect victims. This chapter presents an overview of the offences, locates them within contemporary developments in the criminal law and identifies key matters that must be taken into account when evaluating them.