New police domestic violence boss Leanne McCusker talks about coercive control

New police domestic violence boss Leanne McCusker weighs into the national conversation around domestic violence, including legally recognising coercive control as a form of abuse.

Abuse through coercive control should not become a criminal ­offence but targeted through ­apprehended violence orders protecting women and families, the new police domestic violence boss believes.

In her first interview since stepping into the role, NSW Police domestic and family violence spokeswoman Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker weighed into the national conversation around domestic violence, including legally recognising coercive control as a form of abuse.

But she isn’t convinced creating a new criminal offence in NSW was part of the solution.

Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker is the new domestic and family violence spokeswoman for NSW Police. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Ms McCusker, the first female officer appointed to the role, said there were low conviction rates in countries that had criminalised coercive control.

Breaking away from the views of advocates and lawyers, Ms McCusker suggested expanding AVOs to include a ban on coercive and controlling behaviours.

“Because, really thinking about it from the victim’s point of view, coercive control may be little daily behaviours and may very well span over a ­period of time,” she said.

“Is it potentially a challenge then for the victim to clearly communicate that from an evidence perspective in a court of law? That may be a challenge and I think it’s something that we need to give consideration to and explore.

“Therefore, expanding the definition in a AVO may be the best thing to support a victim.”

A parliamentary committee is examining whether NSW should follow the footsteps of countries like Scotland in making coercive behaviour a criminal offence.

Experts and advocates pushing for the new offence argue an AVO condition doesn’t go far enough, not least because a breach rarely attracts jail time.

NSW Police respond to more than 140,000 domestic violence incidents a year and charge about 4000 people as a result.

Police have introduced high-risk offender teams to tackle domestic violence proactively, rather than waiting on victims to report.

Ms McCusker said the focus on offender accountability led to a surge in AVO breaches, which attract a maximum two-year prison term.

A pilot program targeting inmates found almost a quarter who were banned from contacting someone in an AVO had breached that order in jail.

Ms McCusker will also focus on supporting children exposed to domestic violence to reduce the risk of them becoming future ­victims or offenders.