Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Warning over ‘soft-touch’ justice after domestic abuse incidents show rise

Post Thumbnail

The number of domestic abuse cases rose by 1% for the second year in a row from 58,810 to 59,541, new figures show.

Around four in every five cases involved a female victim and male perpetrator, and the majority happened in a home setting.

The Scottish Government figures were released as ministers come under increasing pressure to scrap plans to abolish jail sentences of less than a year.

Scottish Conservative MP for Angus, Kirstene Hair, said the authorities had to bear in mind the potential impact on domestic abusers and their victims.

“It will be very concerning to the people of Angus that domestic violence appears to be on the rise, with more than three incidents every day within the council area,” she said.

“This has increased by more than 150 incidents a year since the SNP took control of the Scottish Government.

“As domestic abuse charities have pointed out, Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to abolish short prison sentences could result in abusers being let straight back into homes.

“I fully support the police as they strive to crack down on perpetrators, but this is undermined by a soft-touch SNP government at the top which wants to let such people walk free from court.”

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf described the statistics as “sobering” and said society had to work to educate young people about “healthy, positive relationships” and challenge those who minimise the impact of abuse or gender-based violence.

Mr Yousaf added: “Police Scotland is delivering consistent, robust enforcement across the country which, alongside their disclosure scheme and the new laws, will help ensure there is no hiding place for those who think they can continue to abuse partners ‘behind closed doors’.”

The figures show 1,139 incidents of domestic abuse were recorded by police in Angus in 2017-18 — up from 1,125 the previous year.

In Dundee the number of domestic abuse cases went down from 2,266 in 2016-17 to 2,103 in 2017-18.

Figures were also down in Perth and Kinross from 1,180 to 1,142 while there was a slight drop from 4,457 to 4,455 in Fife.

Incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland are more likely to happen at the weekend with 35% of incidents in 2017-18 occurring on a Saturday or a Sunday.

The remaining 65% are spread fairly evenly from Monday to Friday.

Over the past 10 years the percentage of weekend incidents has fallen from 39% in 2008-09.

In 2017-18, more than half (52%) of domestic abuse incidents (where the relationship between the victim and accused is known) involved current partners.

Of the remaining incidents, 47% involved ex-partners.