This is the most publicly recognised pattern of coercive control, and the one the current criminal offence was originally built around. The criminal offence requires the two people to be “personally connected”, which includes current or former partners.

Coercive control remains heavily gendered: in straight relationships, most perpetrators are men, and most recorded victims are women.

Coercive control can happen in queer relationships too.

And as you’ll see as you click through, coercive control isn’t limited to intimate partner relationships.