ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 5610

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: DECEMBER 4, 2025

      The Assembly Judiciary Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 5610.

      This bill adds training concerning coercive control to the existing domestic violence training requirements for judges, court personnel, and law enforcement officers.

      Under current law, N.J.S.A.2C:25-29, indicators of coercive control by an abuser include, but are not limited to:

      (1) isolating a person from friends, relatives, transportation, medical care, or other source of support;

      (2) depriving a person of basic necessities;

      (3) monitoring a person’s movements, communications, daily behavior, finances, economic resources, or access to services;

      (4) compelling a person by force, threat, or intimidation, including, but not limited to, threats based on actual or suspected immigration status;

      (5) threatening to make or making baseless reports to the police, courts, the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP) within the Department of Children and Families, the Board of Social Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or other parties;

      (6) threatening to harm or kill an individual’s relative or pet; and

      (7) threatening to deny or interfere with an individual’s child custody or parenting time, other than through enforcement of a valid custody arrangement or court order.

      Under the bill, the Attorney General and the Administrative Director of the Courts will be required to update the domestic violence training curriculum as necessary to implement the bill.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to clarify that the training is to be based upon the description of coercive control as set forth in N.J.S.A.2C:25-29.