Nov. 8, 2023
Professor co-authors brief on criminalization of coercive control
Brief submitted to Justice Canada as part of an engagement process on the issue of whether an offence of coercive control should be added to the Criminal Code.
Together with Janet Mosher, Shushanna Harris, and Wanda Wiegers, Jennifer Koshan recently submitted a brief to Justice Canada on the criminalization of coercive control. Professor Koshan also participated in Justice Canda's roundtable engagement panels on this subject. The authors focus their submission on the impacts of criminalization on Black women, based on the expertise of co-author Harris, and also review recent family law decisions on coercive control as well as the complexity of intersecting legal systems. They argue that enhanced safety for women and children requires legal actors to acquire deep, contextualized knowledge about coercive control rather than more criminal laws.