evidence: Reality: Domestic abuse does not always include physical violence. Women’s Aid defines domestic abuse as an incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, including sexual violence, by a partner or ex-partner. These incidents can include coercive control; psychological and/or emotional abuse; physical abuse; sexual abuse; financial abuse; harassment; stalking; and/or online or digital abuse. [...] Women are more likely than men to experience multiple incidents of abuse, different types of domestic abuse, and sexual violence particularly (Dobash and Dobash, 2004; Hester, 2013; Myhill, 2015). Domestic abuse exists as part of the wider spectrum of violence against women and girls, which also includes different forms of family violence such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called "honour crimes" that are perpetrated primarily by family members. [...] There are no reliable prevalence data on domestic abuse, but the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) offers the best data available. The latest figures, to the year ending March 2023, found that around one in four women (27%) have experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16 (ONS, 2023b).