Scottish police record record number of male victims of domestic abuse:
AMIS (Abused Men In Scotland) is launched to provide support for male
victims
AMIS (Abused Men In Scotland) Media Release - October, 15, 2010
A new Scottish charity, AMIS, is formally launched today (Friday 15
October 2010) to raise awareness of the number of men in Scotland on the
receiving end of domestic abuse and draw attention to the lack of
services designed to help them.
AMIS today publishes statistics from the 8 Scottish police forces that
show an increase of around 9.4% in the number of incidents that they
recorded as domestic abuse or violence with a man as the victim in
2009-10 compared to 2008-9. The statistics also reveal a reduction of
6.1% in the number of incidents recorded with a woman as victim compared
to 2008-9.
Within the acknowledged limitations of police statistics* one in six of
recorded victims was male yet the reality remains that after 10 years of
the Scottish Parliament there are virtually no support services in
Scotland designed to help men and their children affected by domestic
abuse or violence.
Co-founder of AMIS, Alison Waugh, says, “Unfortunately there is still a
culture of denial among many politicians and providers of services who
do not want to acknowledge the evidence in front of their eyes that
thousands of men every year in Scotland are victims of domestic abuse.
They are abused first by their partner or ex partner and then again by
the public narrative that does not want to know about the damage they
and their children experience.”
The Scottish Government publishes its domestic abuse statistics in
November each year. Through FOI enquiries AMIS has established that for
the 10th year in a row the number of male victims recorded by police has
risen substantially. Six of the eight forces (Central, Fife, Grampian,
Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders and Tayside) recorded an increase in
male victims. Dumfries and Galloway and Northern recorded a fall in both
male and female victims.
Seven of the eight forces recorded a fall in the number of female
victims, the exception being Tayside.
Strathclyde recorded the most dramatic change in the balance of reports
with an 8.3% increase in the number of men recorded as victims (4,685
from 4,324 in 2008-9) and a 9.9% drop in the number of females recorded
as victims (19,840 from 22,019 in 2008-9). Both figures include
heterosexual and same sex relationships.The biggest percentage increase
in the number of male victims recorded was in Fife – up 23.1% (580 in
2009-10 from 471 in 2008-9).
Co-founder of AMIS, Jackie Walls says, “The statistics don't lie. Some
people will say it’s because more men are coming forward to report.
Others, that more women are being violent and abusive. Others, that
public awareness of the reality out there is running ahead of the
politicians. No one really knows. Whatever lies behind the figures we
know that many public services look the other way when it comes to men
who suffer domestic abuse. We have had enough of that one-sided
approach.”
AMIS has been funded by the National Lottery Awards for All Scotland
fund to establish an office in Dunfermline and a national telephone
helpline that will be live in the evenings and weekends for men and
their families. The helpline hours have been arranged to cover some of
the time when the London-based Men's Advice Line, funded by the Scottish
Government since April 2010, is closed. The AMIS helpline will be
staffed by volunteers.
AMIS will also offer awareness training to organisations that have
contact with victims and will seek to work in collaboration with other
agencies that wish to develop support services for men on the receiving
end of abuse and their children. AMIS will take an inclusive approach to
male victims of domestic abuse – including female partners and ex
partners and same sex partners and ex partners.
AMIS evolved from the petition lodged by Alison Waugh and Jackie Walls
at the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee in December 2009.
The petition was supported by over 400 signatories and is still live at
Holyrood. The petition can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/petitions/docs/PE1307.htm
AMIS co-founder, Jackie Walls says, “It has been a long road already for
us to get this far and we are grateful for the Awards For All funding
that is allowing us to make a modest start to the enormous task ahead of
us. It’s a small beginning but it is a beginning.”
* The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey: Partner Abuse research
published by the Scottish Government in December 2009 indicated that
police became aware of 35% of incidents of domestic abuse experienced by
women in the preceding 12 months but only 8% of the incidents
experienced by men.
http://www.oneinthree.com.au/news/2010/10/15/scottish-police-record-record-number-of-male-victims-of-dome.html