Domestic abuse against men rises 10%

Men were the victims of domestic abuse on almost 10,000 occasions last year, figures have revealed.

Statistics from campaign group Abused Men In Scotland (Amis) showed that in 2010-11 so far there were 9,589 domestic abuse cases reported to police where the victim was male.

It said that was a rise of more than 10 per cent on the previous year, as well as being the 11th year in a row that the number of attacks on men had risen.

But Amis secretary Alison Waugh said, despite this, ministers had failed to bring forward a campaign aimed at specifically at male victims of abuse.

Ms Waugh said: “Government spokespeople repeatedly state they take all domestic abuse seriously, but that is hard to square with the reality that in 11 successive years in which the number of male victims has increased there has still not been a single campaign specifically directed at men and their children .”

Ms Waugh said she was pleased more than 50 MSPs had signed a motion put forward by the SNP’s Christine Grahame, highlighting the work Amis does.

Ms Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, also argued there should be government-backed public information campaigns.

She said the level of support for the motion “demonstrates a shift away from the view that domestic violence is only perpetrated by men against women to awareness domestic violence knows no gender boundaries.

Across Scotland 17.36 per cent of the 55,233 reported cases of domestic abuse last year involved a male victim.