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Domestic & Family Violence

Reporting Years Later: How Time Limits Work in Five Countries

You can report domestic violence years later in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and Mexico. Whether charges can still be laid depends on the offence and the place.

Jacqualine Roche

Jacqualine Roche

— 6 min read
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A wooden gavel resting on a closed book.
Photo by Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash

Versión en español: Denunciar años después: cómo funcionan los plazos en cinco países

Part 2 of the "Never Too Late" series

Last reviewed: 30 September 2026

Introduction

"Is it too late?" is usually two questions asked at once. The first is whether police will still take a report. In each of the countries covered here, the answer is yes. The second is whether the person responsible can still be charged. That answer depends on the offence and the place.

This guide explains the rules that govern the second question. It is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and the details of a specific case — the offence, the dates, the jurisdiction where it happened — decide the outcome. A lawyer, community law service, or specialist family violence advocate can give a definitive answer.

Development

Three principles that apply almost everywhere

1. The deadline applies to charging, not to reporting. A limitation period restricts when prosecutors can file charges. It does not stop a person from making a statement, and a statement can matter in other proceedings.

2. Seriousness determines the clock. Across all five countries, the most serious offences — typically those involving serious injury, strangulation, sexual violence, weapons, or threats to kill — have long limitation periods or none at all. Lower-level offences have shorter deadlines.

3. New laws look forward, not back. When a country or state creates a new offence, it applies only to conduct after the law took effect. Behaviour that happened earlier is assessed under the offences that existed at the time.

New Zealand

New Zealand's time limits are set by section 25 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 and depend on the maximum penalty for the offence:

  • Maximum penalty of 3 months' imprisonment or less: charges within 6 months.
  • Maximum penalty over 3 months, up to 6 months: within 12 months.
  • Maximum penalty up to 3 years: within 5 years, or later with the Solicitor-General's consent.
  • Maximum penalty over 3 years, and the most serious (category 4) offences: any time.

Applied to the offences most often charged in family violence cases:

Offence Maximum penalty Time limit for charging
Common assault (Summary Offences Act) 6 months 12 months
Common assault (Crimes Act) 1 year 5 years (later with Solicitor-General's consent)
Assault on a family member 2 years 5 years (later with Solicitor-General's consent)
Male assaults female 2 years 5 years (later with Solicitor-General's consent)
Strangulation or suffocation 7 years Any time
Threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm 7 years Any time
Sexual violation Up to 20 years Any time

New Zealand does not have a standalone criminal offence of coercive control. However, the Family Violence Act 2018 defines family violence to include coercive and controlling behaviour, which is relevant to protection order applications.

Australia

Criminal law is set largely by each state and territory. As a general pattern, lower-level (summary) offences carry short deadlines, commonly measured in months, while serious (indictable) offences generally have no limitation period. Check the rules in the state or territory where the conduct occurred.

Coercive control is being criminalised state by state:

  • New South Wales: a criminal offence since 1 July 2024, applying to current or former intimate partners — but only to behaviour from that date onward.
  • Queensland: passed as a standalone offence in 2024, with a maximum penalty of 14 years.
  • South Australia: legislation passed in 2025.
  • Australian Capital Territory: legislation introduced in 2026.
  • Victoria: legislation in progress.
  • Tasmania: has long had family violence offences covering emotional and economic abuse.

For someone reporting historical abuse, the forward-looking rule matters: patterns of control that ended before a new offence commenced must be framed through the offences that existed at the time.

Canada

Criminal law is federal and set by the Criminal Code:

  • Summary conviction proceedings must begin within 12 months of the offence (extended from six months in 2019), unless the prosecutor and the accused agree otherwise.
  • Indictable offences have no limitation period.
  • Many assault and sexual offences are hybrid: the Crown chooses whether to proceed summarily or by indictment. After 12 months, proceeding by indictment remains possible.

Coercive control became a criminal offence on 18 July 2026. The Protecting Victims Act, which received Royal Assent on 18 June 2026, created new Criminal Code offences for coercive control in intimate relationships. As with any new offence, it cannot be applied to conduct that took place before it came into force.

United States

Limitation periods are set state by state and vary widely. As a general pattern:

  • Misdemeanours commonly carry short deadlines, often one to two years.
  • Felonies carry longer periods, and some serious offences — particularly certain sexual offences — have no limit in some states.
  • The clock usually starts on the date of the offence, and some states pause it in specific circumstances, such as when the accused leaves the state.

On coercive control, Hawaii is the only state to have made it a crime, in 2021, as a petty misdemeanour. Several others recognise it in civil and family law instead — for protection orders and custody decisions — including California and Connecticut (2021), Massachusetts (2024) and Colorado (2026). Bills are pending in a number of other states.

Mexico

Mexico has federal and state penal codes, and most domestic violence cases are handled under the code of the state where they occurred. The Federal Penal Code (article 343 Bis) defines violencia familiar broadly: acts of domination, control, or physical, psychological, economic, or sexual aggression against a spouse, relative, cohabitant, or current or former partner. The federal penalty is six months to four years' imprisonment.

That definition matters: in Mexican federal law, controlling behaviour is already part of the offence rather than a separate crime. Limitation periods (prescripción) are calculated under each code's own rules. The local prosecutor's office (Fiscalía) or a specialist legal service can confirm the position in a specific state.

Summary table

Country Lesser offences Serious offences Coercive control
New Zealand 12 months or 5 years (by maximum penalty) Any time No standalone offence; covered in Family Violence Act definition
Australia Short deadlines, varies by state Generally no limit NSW, QLD, SA criminalised; others in progress; not retrospective
Canada 12 months if proceeding summarily No limit (indictable) Criminal offence since 18 July 2026; not retrospective
United States Often 1–2 years (misdemeanours) Longer or no limit, by state Criminal in Hawaii; civil/family law in several states
Mexico Varies by state code Varies by state code Included in violencia familiar definition

Analysis

The architecture of these rules reflects a trade-off every legal system makes: the interest in holding people accountable against the difficulty of testing evidence long after the events. Systems resolve it the same way — by letting seriousness set the clock.

For domestic violence, that design has a specific weakness. Abuse is often a pattern of many lower-level acts rather than a single serious one. A person may have experienced years of conduct that, taken incident by incident, falls into the shortest limitation categories. The whole was serious; the parts, legally, may have expired. This is one reason coercive control offences exist: they allow the pattern itself to be charged. But because those offences are new and forward-looking, they do not reach the long histories that preceded them.

This is where the distinction from Part 1 becomes practical. When the criminal route is closed, other routes typically remain:

  • Protection orders are civil orders based on the need for protection now; past violence is evidence of that need, and there is generally no fixed deadline for applying.
  • Family court arrangements can be reviewed when safety information comes to light.
  • The report itself creates an official record that can support future proceedings, including if the same person harms someone else.

Conclusion

In each of these five countries, it is never too late to be heard. It can, for some offences, be too late to prosecute — and knowing which is which in advance is part of coming forward with accurate expectations.

The practical sequence is simple. Record what happened, with dates. Identify the jurisdiction where it occurred. Speak to a lawyer, community law centre or specialist advocate about which offences apply and whether their time limits are still open. And whatever the answer on prosecution, remember that the record, the protection order and the account itself remain available.

If you need support

New Zealand: Emergency 111 · Women's Refuge 0800 733 843 · Shine 0508 744 633 · Community Law Centres (free legal help)

Australia: Emergency 000 · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732

Canada: Emergency 911 · support services are provincial; contact your province's family violence line

United States: Emergency 911 · National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233

Mexico: Emergencias 911

Sources

New Zealand

Australia

Canada

United States

Mexico

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