Criminalizing coercive control: cross-jurisdictional lessons

An increasing number of jurisdictions are introducing coercive control offences. It is therefore vital that the experiences of jurisdictions which have already enacted such legislation are examined in order to ascertain what lessons can be learnt. This paper seeks to analyse the coercive control provisions which have been enacted or drafted to date, and also to examine experiences of the implementation of such provisions. The article focuses in particular on the coercive control offence introduced in Northern Ireland under section 1 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021. Being the final jurisdiction within the UK and Ireland to criminalize coercive control allowed Northern Ireland to ‘cherry pick’ aspects of the relevant provisions in the other jurisdictions, and Northern Ireland therefore exemplifies a jurisdiction which effectively took learnings from experiences elsewhere. In April 2024, a review of the implementation of Northern Ireland’s coercive control offence was published. The article examines the lessons which can be learnt from this review for other jurisdictions implementing coercive control offences.