According to the article, “Curbing coercive control” (26 April) there 5,745,000 people in Australia reporting two forms of coercive control (emotional and economic abuse).
There are many other forms of coercive control so it would be reasonable to put the figure much higher for all forms of coercive control.
So if we are going to “… hold perpetrators responsible ” as suggested by Angela Powditch, the justice system, and the jails will be overwhelmed as the new offence of coercive control has a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail.
Nobody should be coerced into anything but surely it would be better to respond to coercive control by enabling the person to leave the relationship.
If this needs more resources, then they should be provided.
It is faintly ridiculous to suppose that charging someone with coercive control will limit domestic violence.
It may be that it will increase domestic violence.
Of course, there is the argument that coercive control often precedes domestic violence.
That does not mean that it is the cause of domestic violence.
I recall the old argument that milk leads on to drug abuse.
Don’t all drug abusers start on milk?
Because something happens after something else does not imply a cause-effect relationship.
In the search for ways to lessen domestic violence, it is important that we look at results.
So far the activity to lessen domestic violence appears to be failing as domestic violence is increasing.
– Reg Lawler
Dagun
