UK police have arrested women with criminal records after findings that many are domestic abuse victims sentenced for offences allegedly carried out under coercion from their abusers, according to OpenDemocracy. The investigation is based on months combing through prison data and filing dozens of Freedom of Information requests. The newsletter describes a reported link between domestic abuse and women’s offending that it says has been largely ignored within the criminal justice system. One woman interviewed said she did not realise her partner was controlling until it was too late. The account focuses on women who were potentially thousands, alongside those already in prison, and how their cases were handled once they were convicted and sentenced. OpenDemocracy presents the findings as part of an ongoing investigative effort into prisons in England and Wales and the situation facing domestic abuse victims within the justice system.