Submission to Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce: Options for legislating against coercive control and the creation of a standalone domestic violence offence Discussion Paper 1

This taskforce submission has been written by an inter-disciplinary team of academics representing two Australian universities (QLD, NT) . Our collective experience spans areas of anthropology, sociology, social work and law. Viewing the complex issue of coercive control through a multi-disciplinary lens has allowed us to address different questions and options that are relevant to, and reflect, our expertise. We have decided to use the term Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) throughout this submission, and we will interchangeably use the terms victim and survivor.
We begin this submission with a vignette that represents a lived experience of coercive control experienced by Mary (not her real name). Next, we examine questions 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 32, 36, 37, 56 and 69. We then we move to considering considering options 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10. Our submission concludes with a summary statement outlining our overall position on legislating against coercive control.