This week, the NSW government announced its commitment to outlawing the historically overlooked form of intimate abuse known as coercive control following a recent inquiry.

The news has been welcomed, especially considering the horrific and heartbreaking stories that have circulated not only in 2021, but the many personal accounts from years before.

There has also been confusion, with some unsure how exactly the government aims to criminalise coercive control.

Here is everything we know about the proposed commitment.

Watch: Habits of highly destructive people. Coercive control. Post continues below.

What exactly is coercive control?

Community awareness of coercive control has increased in recent years, and is now more widely seen as both a form of abuse and a red flag in a relationship.

Coercive control is a pattern of abuse designed to dominate, oppress and trap another individual.

Though it can come hand-in-hand with physical violence, it typically involves more insidious and manipulative tactics like social isolation, intimidation, humiliation and degradation, monitoring movements and communication with others, controlling finances, and so on.

According to NSW Mental Health and Women Minister, Bronnie Taylor, intimate partner homicide is "typically preceded by coercive control." The NSW Coroner's domestic violence death review team corroborates this.

In a recent report, the NSW Coroner found a number of cases were not preceded by an evident history of physical violence, and that some offenders actually refrained from physical violence to avoid attracting police attention.

Rather than physical violence, some perpetrators instead used "extreme manipulation and controlling behaviours" in a bid to control or limit their loved one's freedom.

The murders of Brisbane family Hannah, Aaliyah, Laianah, and Trey, started a national conversation about coercive control. Speaking to Mamamia, Hannah's mother is determined to keep it going. https://t.co/ul97r5yAYT

— Mamamia (@Mamamia)

The NSW Coroner's report also found that the victim-survivors rarely knew they were being abused, as many naively once saw domestic violence as purely physical.

The inquiry into coercive control.

Earlier this year in June, NSW Parliament held an inquiry on coercive control in domestic relationships.

It was a major step in the right direction, not only for the state but for the country as a whole said the inquiry's Chair, MP Natalie Ward.

"The enormity of this task and expectations of those with interest have weighed on me heavily, perhaps more than any other task I have been humbled to have been entrusted to undertake in this role," Ms Ward said in her foreword.

This is the confronting reality about violence against women in this country. As we approach the upcoming election it’s more important than ever that our leaders commit to doing the hard work — structural change so we can eliminate gendered violence. (3/3)

— Brittany Higgins (@BrittHiggins_)

"More important than any of us, are the women and children who walk among us and are barely surviving the domestic terrorism of coercive control every day. It is no exaggeration, it is a silent, hidden and deathly pandemic."

The findings from the inquiry.

Four of the main recommendations from the inquiry committee include:

"We also know that criminalising coercive control will not immediately end all domestic abuse," Ms Ward noted. "Nor will it result in thousands of arrests and convictions. But lives just might be saved."