'Terror behind doors': Impact of coercive control on region

The comment comes in the wake of advocates, police and lawyers being among the first witnesses to give evidence during the public inquiry of NSW parliament's Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control.

The inquiry contemplates criminalising coercive control, broadly defined as a pattern of behaviours used to intimidate, humiliate, surveil, and control another person.

Emma Bromham, manager of the Riverina Women's Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service, said at least 85 per cent of their clients have reported being the target of coercive control.

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"The first component is isolating the person from any sort of support such as work, friends and family and even services they are involved with," she explained.

"The second part is the deprivation of basic needs so that could be food, medical needs, and personal care items and then we start to see the monitoring of time and that includes the surveillance strategies.

"They take over aspects of their life, such as where you can go, who you can see, what you can wear and when you can sleep and depriving access to support services, such as medical services."

Clients of the Riverina branch of WDVCAS often describe their life as "walking on eggshells in their own home" or being a prisoner out in society that can't connect with anyone.

Ms Bromham said that many of her clients would often say they wish their partner had been physically violent towards them.

"If they had a black eye or a broken arm then someone might understand," she said.

"What we see a lot is that women say they have adjusted their behaviour over the years, so they don't have to live with that physical retribution."

WDVCAS received about 1200 referrals in six months, which is just a "snippet" of what happens.

"That's only the cases police are involved in," Ms Bromham explained.

"Because of the stigma, people don't want to talk about it ... [but] most people, if not everybody, knows someone who has been affected by family and domestic violence."

Ms Bromham said she had heard family and domestic abuse described as a form of terrorism, a term she agrees with.

She said legislating coercive control in relationships would act as a deterrent but acknowledged it would be a complex process.

Julie Mecham, a crisis and support worker at the Wagga Women's Health Centre, echoed the comments made by Ms Bromham.

"We know the belittling, the emotional isolation and the patterns of behaviour can be complex and very difficult to prove," she said.

"Perpetrators don't have horns. They don't look like bad guys."

Another tactic that commonly falls under the realm of coercive control, Ms Mecham said, is pregnancy coercion.

"This can include tampering with or restricting forms of contraception to try and impregnate their partners," she said.

"It can also include restricting access to terminations or forcing a termination. Once a woman is pregnant, then they are tied to the perpetrator, so it's a way of harnessing that victim-survivor to them."

Ms Mecham said if coercive control is legislated, a range of systems would need to adjust.

"The justice system will be one of those," she said.

The NSW parliament's Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control is due to report back by June.

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