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The Dutch cabinet wants to make coercive control and psychological abuse standalone crimes. The intention is to let police and prosecutors intervene in domestic violence before it turns deadly.
Justice minister David van Weel proposed the bill on Monday. It would put coercive control, defined as a sustained pattern of humiliating, frightening or isolating a partner in order to dominate them, into the criminal code for the first time.
The code would explicitly recognise that abuse can be psychological as well as physical.
Britain and Ireland criminalised coercive control in 2015 and 2019. Campaigners and researchers treat it as a frequent precursor to femicide, the killing of a woman because of her gender, which claims around 43 lives a year in the Netherlands – roughly one every eight days.
“Psychological violence has serious consequences for victims, but at the moment is not always a crime,” Van Weel said in a statement. “That means police and the justice system can do too little, even in situations that are serious or escalating.”
Manslaughter to match murder
The bill would also let judges impose a murder sentence – life or 30 years – for a manslaughter that follows a pattern of domestic abuse or coercive control, closing a gap in cases where premeditation cannot be proven.
It would further allow prosecutors to pursue stalking and coercive control without a victim’s formal complaint, and make threatening to share someone’s sexual images, known as sextortion, an offence in its own right.
The proposal follows years of pressure over the state’s handling of femicide, from a 1,000-strong march in Rotterdam last summer to prosecutors’ warnings that controlling behaviour and strangulation are red flags missed in the run-up to a killing. The consultation runs for 10 weeks.
If you have experienced or are experiencing domestic or sexual violence, Veilig Thuis (Safe at Home) offers confidential advice 24 hours a day on 0800 2000 or at veiligthuis.nl. In an emergency, call 112.
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