Coercive control in the Victorian context: Continuing the conversation
20 February 2026
In 2025, Safe and Equal consulted extensively with member services, survivor advocates and reviewed contemporary literature and data to update our 2021 paper Responding to Coercive Control in Victoria – Broadening the conversation beyond criminalisation*.
Following this process, this paper maintains our position against criminalising coercive control in Victoria, on the grounds that:
- Coercive control is already recognised in Victoria’s definition of family violence under the Family Violence Protection Act (2008).
- There is no substantive evidence that the introduction of a coercive control criminal offence increases victim survivor safety or accountability for people using violence.
- Increased contact with the criminal justice system poses increased risk for over-policed and marginalised communities, which is likely to be exacerbated by the introduction of a coercive control criminal offence.
With coercive control inherent to all forms of family violence, strengthening responses to address coercive control is critical. However, we know that criminalising coercive control does not necessarily make victim survivors safer. Instead, we must address coercive control as a whole-of-system response.
Page last updated 20 February 2026.
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