Police-academic partnerships could help tackle the crime of coercive control

Research collaboration between police forces and academics could go a long way to ensuring federal legislation aimed at fighting coercive control in intimate relationships is effective. (Shutterstock)

In 2020, calls to defund the police echoed a longstanding argument in critical criminology in favour of police abolition.

Academics who support abolition promote activism over collaboration. But as calls for “defund the police” pivot to “refund the police” in priority areas — in particular mental health, issues faced by marginalized people and intimate partner violence — police-researcher partnerships are needed more than ever.