Domestic violence against men doubles in Scotland

Women remain the victims in around 80 per cent of domestic violence cases

File photo (Corbis)

Domestic violence against men has doubled in Scotland over the last ten years while the abuse of women in the home has declined, according to official statistics published on Tuesday.

Scotland’s overall domestic abuse rate increased by 2.5 per cent in 2014/15 compared to the previous year, the figures from Scotland’s Chief Statistician revealed. Women are still the victims in around 80 per cent of domestic violence cases, but recorded abuse against men has doubled between 2005/06 and 2012/13 and now makes up 20 per cent of the total.

There has also been a large rise in the number of incidents recorded as transgender or where a gender was not recorded, up from 190 in 2010/11 to 8,020 now. In 2014/15 there were 59,882 incidents of domestic abuse against both sexes overall, with Dundee (1,703) and Glasgow (1,497) recording the highest rates of violence per 100,000 people. Domestic abuse cases are also more common at weekends, the figures showed.

“Year after year we are seeing the number of men reporting domestic abuse increase and the barriers that these men must overcome are not to be minimised,” said Aaron Slater, support manager for the charity Abused Men In Scotland.

Following the publication of the figures, the Scottish Government announced £3m of funding over the next three years for victims’ charity ASSIST. Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: “The fact that domestic abuse statistics are remaining relatively steady, despite falling overall recorded crime rates, suggests that those who might have never otherwise come forward are now doing so.”