Coercive Control

Criminal lawyers for coercive control offences

Coercive control is a criminal offence when a person uses abusive behaviours towards a current or former intimate partner intending to coerce or control them.

The criminal offence captures repeated patterns of physical or non-physical abuse used to hurt, scare, intimidate, threaten or control someone. The law only applies to abusive behaviour that happens after 1 July 2024.

The offence of coercive control is found at section 54D of the Crimes Act 1900. 

How do I beat a charge of Coercive Control?

You will be found not guilty of the offence of coercive control if the police cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that you:

1. Engaged in a course of conduct against another person that consists of abusive behaviour, and
2. The other person and you are or were intimate partners, and
3. You intend the course of conduct to coerce or control the other person, and
4. A reasonable person would consider the course of conduct would be likely, in all the circumstances, to cause fear that violence will be used against the other person or another person or a serious adverse impact on the capacity of the other person to engage in some or all of the person’s ordinary day-to-day activities. 

 It is a defence to the offence of coercive control if the course of conduct was reasonable in all the circumstances. That the course of conduct was reasonable in all the circumstances is taken to be proven if evidence adduced is capable of raising an issue as to whether the course of conduct is reasonable in all the circumstances, and the prosecution does not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the course of conduct is not reasonable in all the circumstances.

What is abusive behaviour?

Abusive behaviour” means behaviour that consists of or involves:

• Violence or threats against, or intimidation of, a person, or
• Coercion or control of the person against whom the behaviour is directed.

The following behaviour may constitute engaging in, or threatening to engage in, abusive behaviour:

•   Behaviour that causes harm to a child if a person fails to comply with demands made of the person.
• Behaviour that causes harm to the person against whom the behaviour is directed, or another adult, if the person fails to comply with demands made of the person.
• Behaviour that is economically or financially abusive, such as withholding financial support necessary for meeting the reasonable living expenses of a person or their dependents or preventing a person from obtaining employment or having access to their income or financial assets.
• Behaviour that shames, degrades or humiliates.
• Behaviour that directly or indirectly harasses a person, or monitors or tracks a person’s activities, communications or movements, whether by physically following the person, using technology or in another way.
• Behaviour that causes damage to or destruction of property.
• Behaviour that prevents the person from doing any of the following or otherwise isolates the person from making or keeping connections with the person’s family, friends, or culture, participating in cultural or spiritual ceremonies or practices, or expressing the person’s cultural identity.
• Behaviour that causes injury or death to an animal, or otherwise makes use of an animal to threaten a person.
• Behaviour that deprives a person of liberty, restricts a person’s liberty or otherwise unreasonably controls or regulates a person’s day-to-day activities. For example, unreasonable demands or threats about how a person exercises the person’s personal, social or sexual autonomy, denying a person access to basic necessities, withholding necessary medical care or compelling the person to undertake medical treatments.

Any combination of abusive behaviours may constitute the course of conduct. Whether the course of conduct consists of abusive behaviour must be assessed by considering the totality of the behaviours. It is not an element of the offence that the fear or impact on the ordinary day-to-day activities was caused, only that a reasonable person would consider the fear or impact likely to occur. 

Course of conduct means engaging in behaviour either repeatedly, continuously, or both repeatedly and continuously. However, the behaviour does not have to be involved in an unbroken series of incidents or in immediate succession.

Why choose Australian Criminal Law Group?

Australian Criminal Law Group are an award-winning criminal law firm with 500+ five-star Google reviews. Esteemed criminal lawyer Joseph Correy founded us with the 2017 NSW Australian of the Year, Deng Adut, to provide the best representation at an affordable price. Our team are experts at obtaining not guilty verdicts and lenient sentences, such as no convictions. We offer free first consultations and fixed fees. 

To discuss your coercive control charge, contact us for a free first consultation at our Sydney, Parramatta, and Blacktown offices, via video or phone.

This information is intended as a general guide to law only.  It should not be relied on as legal advice and it is recommended that you speak with a qualified lawyer about your situation.

Australian Criminal Law Group and its suppliers make every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and validity of the information provided on its web pages. At the time of updating, this information was correct, however, given the laws in NSW and Australia are continually changing, Australian Criminal Law Group make no warranties or representations as to its accuracy.