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Get help nowAn independent inquiry into the system
Systems, processes and institutions continue its consequences.
silent no more
Coerced UK examines what happens when a survivor reaches out for safety, independence or justice — and the systems they encounter instead prolong, reproduce or compound the consequences of the abuse. More about us
Controlling or coercive behaviour is a criminal offence under section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015. It recognises patterns of behaviour that cause fear of violence or serious alarm or distress with a substantial effect on a person's day-to-day life.
Manipulation is the use of pressure, distortion, deception or emotional control to influence how another person thinks, feels or acts — often so gradually that the victim, and the people around them, do not immediately recognise it.
Latest findings
We treat survivor testimony as evidence and institutional silence as a finding. Every published figure carries a source. Forthcoming briefings are marked as such.
Inquiry
The perpetrator can establish narratives, undermine credibility and shape how others see the victim. Institutions then unintentionally prebieve or reproduce the very control from which a survivor is trying to escape.
Evidence
Surviving Economic Abuse found that a case of economic abuse is reported to police every 20 minutes — and that officers and courts still treat physical assault as the real crime, leaving the control uncharged.
The omissions
This is not a list of crimes. It is a list of questions that were never put on the form — and the people those missing questions left unprotected.
01
Risk assessments record injuries and incidents. The pattern of control is treated as hard to prove, so it is often not asked.
In the year ending March 2022, only 3.7% of recorded controlling or coercive behaviour crimes resulted in a charge — against 6.7% for all domestic-abuse-related offences.
02
Enforcement assumes the signatory chose the debt, the plea, the contact. Coercion is not a question the court solicits.
Of prosecuted controlling-or-coercive cases known to feature economic abuse, just 2% resulted in the perpetrator being ordered to pay compensation.
03
A complaint or a safe address disclosed in a file can destroy the security a survivor has just built. Vulnerability is read as unreliability.
An abuser can shape an institutional narrative before the victim has had any meaningful opportunity to explain what has happened.
04
Lenders assess the joint account's creditworthiness. Nobody asks who controls it. Changing a mortgage still needs the abuser's consent.
A joint mortgage can keep a survivor financially connected to an abusive former partner. Coerced debt can follow them for years.
05
A complaint process can require repeated traumatic disclosure. The institution does not have to intend to participate in abuse for its systems to compound the harm.
For a survivor the result is brutally familiar: being disbelieved, losing control, being forced repeatedly to justify yourself.
3.8m
adults in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2025
1 in 5
UK women experienced economic abuse by a current or former partner in the previous year
3.7%
of recorded controlling or coercive behaviour crimes resulted in a charge, YE March 2022
Home Office, Controlling or coercive behaviour statutory guidance, 2023
Figures are taken from the cited publications. Coercive control itself remains difficult to measure because much of it is non-physical, cumulative and hidden from those outside the relationship.
Survivor voices
One of the most powerful features of coercive control is that the perpetrator does not always have to continue the abuse themselves.
Jack Brown, Founder, Coerced UK — August 2026
When I turned to the police, I was not believed. When I later sought support from Barclays, I encountered the same fundamental problem: what I was describing was not properly understood.
Jack Brown, Founder, Coerced UK
I feel as though I have been abused twice — once by my ex-partner and again by Barclays.
“Sally James”, The Observer / The Guardian, 17 June 2024
The physical abuse was more important to the police. They wanted to focus on the rape charges, the harassment, stalking. But the financial control had been there from day one.
Victim-survivor, SEA, Seen yet sidelined, 2023
Share your story
Your account is evidence. It is also yours. Read this first, then decide whether — and how — you want to write.
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About us
We are not a helpline and we are not a campaign slogan. We are a research organisation that treats survivor testimony as evidence and institutional silence as a finding.
A UK non-profit examining how police, courts, social services, financial institutions and legal systems fail people subjected to coercive and controlling abuse — and what that failure costs the people living inside it.
We gather published evidence, Freedom of Information responses and first-hand accounts, then cross-check before publication. AI tools are used only for transcription and anonymisation — never for analysis or conclusions.
Our own sample is self-selected, so findings show patterns rather than prevalence. Every number on this site carries a source. Where a figure is not yet confirmed, we say so in plain language.
Support
If you need help more than evidence, start here. These organisations exist to support you. We list them because this work should never trap anyone on the page.
Call 999 now. When you can, leave this page — the Quick exit button opens Google and this site will not come back when you press Back.
Contact
Press, policy and funding each have a named route. Survivor stories do not go through this form — they go through Share your story, where safety comes first.
