Relates to establishing the crime of coercive control; provides that a person is guilty of coercive control when such person engages in a course of conduct against a member of such person's same family or household, without the victim's consent, which results in limiting or restricting, in full or in part, the victim's behavior, movement, associations or access to or use of such victim's own finances or financial information; provides that coercive control is a class E felony.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A679
SPONSOR: Hevesi TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of
coercive control
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Relates to establishing the crime of coercive control.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 135.80 to
establish the crime of coercive control
Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
Coercive control refers to abuse as a "strategic course of oppressive
behavior," meaning that battering is:
- rational, instrumental behavior and not a loss of control "ongoing"
rather than episodic
- based on multiple tactics like violence, intimidation, degradation,
isolation and control
Although times are changing, men still possess gender-based privilege
and sixty - eighty percent of abused women experience coercive control
beyond physical and emotional abuse.
This legislation will prompt advocates to look beyond the violence and
access ones actions and behaviors within Intimate Partner violence.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: A. 2707 - Referred to Codes
S. 6695/Parker - Referred to Codes
2021-2022: A. 3147 - Referred to Codes
S. 5650/Parker - Referred to Codes
2019-2020: A. 8904 - Referred to Codes
S. 5306/Parker - Referred to Codes
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
679
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HEVESI, ROZIC, STIRPE, BORES, SIMON, STECK,
SIMONE, CRUZ, NOVAKHOV -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of
coercive control
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 135.80 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 135.80 Coercive control.
4 A person is guilty of coercive control when such person engages in a
5 course of conduct against a member of such person's same family or
6 household, as defined in section 530.11 of the criminal procedure law,
7 without the victim's consent, which results in limiting or restricting,
8 in full or in part, the victim's behavior, movement, associations or
9 access to or use of such victim's own finances or financial information.
10 For the purposes of this section, lack of consent results from forcible
11 compulsion, as defined in subdivision eight of section 130.00 of this
12 title, or from fear that refusal to consent will result in further
13 actions limiting or restricting the victim's behavior, movement, associ-
14 ations or access to or use of such victim's own finances or financial
15 information. This section shall not apply to actions taken pursuant to a
16 legal arrangement granting one person power or authority over another
17 person, including, but not limited to, power of attorney arrangements as
18 defined in paragraph (j) of subdivision two of section 5-1501 of the
19 general obligations law, guardians of the property or person as defined
20 in subdivisions (c) and (d) of section 83.03 of the mental hygiene law,
21 or parental control of a minor child.
22 Coercive control is a class E felony.
23 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01440-01-5
