Published July 11, 2026
From Civil Definition to Criminal Offence
Hawaii occupies a distinctive position in the development of coercive control law in the United States. In September 2020, Governor David Ige signed Hawaii HB 2425, making Hawaii the first U.S. state to adopt legislation addressing coercive control. The bill, introduced by Representative David A. Tarnas, expanded the concept of domestic violence to include coercive control. The Hawaii law allows courts to consider evidence of coercive control when deciding whether to issue a protective order against an abuser.
Critically, HB 2425 was not a criminal coercive control offence. It amended the definition of domestic abuse under Hawaii’s insurance laws and domestic abuse protective order statutes to include coercive control between family or household members. The definition it introduced, codified at section 586-1 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, describes coercive control as “a pattern of threatening, humiliating, or intimidating actions, which may include assaults, or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten an individual.”
The statute enumerates eight categories of conduct that may constitute coercive control, including isolating the individual from friends and family; controlling how much money is accessible to the individual and how it is spent; monitoring the individual’s activities, communications, and movements; name-calling, degradation, and demeaning the individual frequently; threatening to harm or kill the individual or a child or relative; threatening to publish information or make reports to police; damaging property or household goods; and forcing the individual to take part in criminal activity or child abuse.
The Petty Misdemeanor Pilot Program
Hawaii then took a step that no other U.S. state had clearly attempted. Through HB 566, which became law without the Governor’s signature as Act 238 on July 6, 2021, the legislature added coercive control to the criminal offence of abuse of a family or household member under section 709-906 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Under subsection (6), it became a petty misdemeanor for a person to intentionally or knowingly exercise coercive control, as defined in section 586-1, over a family or household member.
Petty misdemeanors carry a maximum penalty of 30 days of jail time and a $1,000 fine. The legislature did not create a standalone criminal coercive control offence; rather, it embedded the conduct within an existing domestic abuse statute that also covers offensive physical contact. The legislature stated that the addition of coercive control would apply to many victims and encourage them to come forward, and placed the provision within the pilot program established by Act 19, Session Laws 2020, which was designed to strengthen state and county responses to domestic violence.
A pivotal feature of the criminal coercive control provision is that it was enacted with a sunset clause. The provision was added to the pilot program to strengthen state and county responses to domestic violence, with a sunset date of June 30, 2026. As of publication, whether the legislature has extended or allowed that provision to lapse requires verification of the most recent session laws.
Law Enforcement Opposition and Enforceability Concerns
The criminal coercive control offence provoked significant institutional resistance. The Hawaii Attorney General’s office wrote in legislative testimony that coercive control “is not suited for criminal prosecution,” stating that it was not clear what conduct the bill intended to prohibit or what evidence could prove the offence. The AG’s office argued that “the vagueness and overbreadth of the bill’s amendments will only add confusion and uncertainty for both the victims and law enforcement.”
The bill also received criticism from the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Public Defender, and the Honolulu Police Department. Senator Karl Rhoads acknowledged that without law enforcement support, coercive control may never be prosecuted despite being on the books, stating, “It may be a very important step forward or we may find it just doesn’t work very well.” That uncertainty was the stated rationale for attaching the provision to a time-limited pilot program.
These objections mirror concerns raised by scholars internationally about whether patterns of non-physical abuse can be proved to a criminal standard. Evan Stark, who coined the term coercive control in his 2007 book “Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life,” has argued that the law must move beyond incident-based models of domestic violence, but translating that framework into prosecutable criminal elements remains a contested undertaking.
Why This Model Matters
The economic and public health stakes of intimate partner violence provide important context for Hawaii’s legislative experiment. Research by Peterson and colleagues, published through the CDC in 2018, estimated the lifetime economic burden of intimate partner violence at nearly $3.6 trillion in 2014 dollars, based on 43 million U.S. adults with a victimization history. That estimate included $2.1 trillion (59 percent) in medical costs and $1.3 trillion (37 percent) in lost productivity.
Within Hawaii specifically, a study commissioned by the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence found that one in five Hawaii residents reported experiencing coercive control, with a quantitative survey of over 700 residents revealing that 20 percent had experienced coercive control and 18 percent had experienced intimidation or physical violence from an intimate partner. The report also found that 28 percent of IPV survivors reported that the abuse worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whereas domestic violence laws usually focus on discrete physical assaults, coercive control laws encompass a broader range of abusive behaviors, which often occur before or in conjunction with physical violence. This distinction underscores why advocates, as reported by Civil Beat, have argued that the change is important to address the often unseen versions of domestic violence, including psychological control that may not leave bruises but still effectively traps people within abusive relationships.
Costs and Tradeoffs of Criminalization
Hawaii’s model highlights several enduring tensions in coercive control law. First, the petty misdemeanor classification places the criminal coercive control offence at the lowest tier of Hawaii’s criminal hierarchy, which limits both penalties and the investigative resources likely to be allocated. Second, the breadth of the statutory definition, which includes behaviors such as name-calling and monitoring communications, raises questions about whether prosecutors can meet even a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, let alone proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Third, the pilot program structure itself signals legislative uncertainty about whether criminalization will produce meaningful deterrence or, instead, generate enforcement difficulties that undermine confidence in the law.
As reported by Civil Beat, House Majority Leader Della Au Belatti emphasized that the purpose of the bill was not to send more people to jail but, under the pilot program, to ensure they get the help they need to correct their behaviors. The pilot project allows people convicted of domestic abuse to take domestic violence prevention classes instead of spending time in jail. This rehabilitative framing distinguishes Hawaii’s approach from the punitive model adopted in jurisdictions such as England and Wales under section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, where the maximum sentence is five years’ imprisonment.
Further Reading and Resources
This article is educational content and does not constitute legal advice. Readers seeking assistance may contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) or consult the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The full text of Hawaii’s coercive control definition is available at section 586-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and the criminal provision appears at section 709-906, Hawaii Revised Statutes.
Sources
- Hawaii HB 2425 (2020), Hawaii State Legislature
- Hawaii HB 566 (2021), Act 238, Hawaii State Legislature
- Section 709-906, Hawaii Revised Statutes, Hawaii State Legislature
- Section 586-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes (2024), Justia
- Peterson et al., “Lifetime Economic Burden of Intimate Partner Violence Among U.S. Adults,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2018
- “Measure Criminalizing ‘Coercive Control’ Faces Opposition From Law Enforcement,” Honolulu Civil Beat, May 2021
- About Intimate Partner Violence, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2026
Disclaimer
Coercive control law moves fast. Jurisdictions are actively criminalizing it, amending definitions, and changing the scope of litigation. This article is current as of its date of publication and may not reflect subsequent changes. It is provided for general educational purposes and is not legal advice.