NSW was the first Australian jurisdiction to make coercive control an offence when landmark legislation passed state parliament in 2022.
The laws apply when a person uses abusive behaviours to a current or former intimate partner with the intent of controlling or coercing them.
NSW Police have recorded 297 incidents of coercive control but laid charges on nine occasions, according to a report released on Friday by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
The median time between a police report and a coercive control charge was about four months.
This was driven partially by the "incredibly high" legal threshold to lay a coercive control charge, Domestic Violence NSW senior policy and advocacy officer Angie Gehle said.
"Victim-survivors are finding it really hard to get that evidence together," she told AAP.
Requiring an offender to demonstrate intent to coerce or control their partner can be difficult when they might not realise their behaviour is causing harm.
Because the law does not apply to behaviour before July 2024, it can be difficult to establish a "pattern" of coercive control in the year since it came into effect.
The charges are also yet to be tested by the courts.
While three coercive control charges have been finalised in court, they were withdrawn by the prosecution on two occasions, with the defendant pleading guilty in the third case.
"We're still in a state of unknown," crime statistics bureau executive director Jackie Fitzgerald told AAP.
"The small number of charges highlights the complexity of investigating and prosecuting this form of abuse."
Women accounted for 94 per cent of all recorded coercive control victims, with 92 per cent of incidents involving a female victim and male alleged offender, the report found.
Rates of coercive control in regional NSW were about twice as high as in greater Sydney, which follows the same pattern as other domestic violence offences.
The data has been taken as a sign that awareness of coercive control is increasing, prompting more victims to come forward.
Ms Gehle has urged the government to offer greater resources for frontline services so they can meet the demand.
Domestic Violence NSW has also called for the offence to be applied to family and other types of relationships beyond intimate partners.
Queensland was the second state to criminalise coercive control after its laws came into effect in May, while SA and WA are expected to follow suit.
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