Violence, intimidation, isolation, and control – depravation of liberty and autonomy, withholding access to money, psychological manipulation, stalking, physical assault, threatening to take children away – these are forms of coercive control, defined by the ACT Government as “patterns of abusive behaviour designed to exercise domination and control over the other party in a relationship”.
Nearly all Australians consider coercive control unacceptable, but barely half of us know what the term means, according to a new study from the Australian National University (ANU) – and worryingly, young people are more likely to condone coercive control in relationships.
The study asked more than 3,500 adults about their views on coercive control.
More than 90 per cent of respondents agreed various forms of coercive control – including threatening to harm other loved ones, financial abuse, and restricting contact with family and friends – were unacceptable. But just 55 per cent of respondents answered ‘yes’ when asked if they knew what the term coercive control meant.
Report co-author Professor Lorana Bartels, a criminologist, said that beyond these statistics, attitudes and knowledge varied significantly.
“There were significant gender differences – women were more likely than men to be very disapproving of different forms of coercive control, and they were also more likely to know what coercive control is,” Professor Bartels said.
Support for the criminalisation of coercive control was very high: 83 per cent of Australians agree or strongly agree that coercive control should be a criminal offence. This support was strongest among English-speaking Australians, older people, and respondents with higher levels of education.
Conversely, a significant proportion of younger people had “condoning or minimising” attitudes towards some forms of coercive behaviour.
“These findings were really concerning for us,” report co-author Dr Hayley Boxall, also a criminologist, said. “At 18 to 24 years old, a lot of people are starting their first serious intimate relationships.
“It’s during these formative relationships that we develop our understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behaviours within intimate relationships. So if young people think certain behaviours are OK, they may be more tolerant of them in their own and other people’s relationships.”
Support for criminalisation of coercive control was lowest among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents.
“This wasn’t really unexpected,” Dr Boxall said. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen a number of domestic violence and First Nations advocates and organisations express serious concerns about the over-policing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”
According to the study’s authors, the results show a need for targeted campaigns to raise awareness of coercive control in Australia.
“This is particularly important for young people, men, and people from non-English speaking backgrounds, who were less concerned about coercive and controlling behaviours,” Professor Bartels said.
“Showing diversity of relationships in these campaigns is also crucial, to ensure people can identify coercive control in multiple contexts.
“More research is also needed into the reasons behind these variations in understanding and attitudes.”
The survey is published by the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods.
