Annex D The Scottish Government's Approach to Tackling Violence Against Women
Work to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland
The National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland (2000) includes the following definition of domestic abuse used by the Scottish Government:
"Domestic abuse (as gender-based abuse), can be perpetrated by partners or ex-partners and can include physical abuse (assault and physical attack involving a range of behaviour), sexual abuse (acts which degrade and humiliate women and are perpetrated against their will, including rape) and mental and emotional abuse (such as threats, verbal abuse, racial abuse, withholding money and other types of controlling behaviour such as isolation from family or friends)."
The Strategy recognises that:
"Domestic abuse is most commonly perpetrated by men against women… and requires a response which takes account of the gender specific elements and the broader gender inequalities which women face."
It goes on to state that:
"…in accepting this definition, it must be recognised and taken into account that, particularly among black and minority ethnic communities, other family members connected to a woman through marriage may be involved in, or may participate in the abuse of the woman. In certain cases, abuse is perpetrated by other family members, even without the knowledge of the partner. In addition, there is abuse of women by members of their own families in the context of forced, as opposed to arranged, marriages or as a result of their failed marriages or divorce."
As identified earlier in this paper, men can be the victims of forced marriage and suffer the devastating effect on their lives, however, the statistical information available shows that the majority of those affected are women.
Links to the broader Violence Against Women agenda
The National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland (2000) will be taken forward in the context of a Strategic Framework for addressing violence against women in Scotland (forthcoming).
Violence against women is widespread, and can affect women of any backgrounds. Across all forms of violence and abuse, women are most at risk from men they know.
The elimination of violence against women requires as its starting point a shared understanding of the causes and nature of this violence. The aim of Scotland's Strategic Framework on Violence Against Women is to:
- provide a framework within which current and future work can be taken forward;
- actively promote the development of existing measures and the adoption of new measures, at a local and national level, to address violence against women;
- encourage links to be made between different forms of violence against women;
- ensure greater commonality across local and national work on violence against women;
- raise awareness of the impacts of violence against women on children and young people;
- ensure that work on violence against women is carried out across the 3 P's - Prevention, Protection and Provision.
In addition, participation, that is the involvement of women, children and young people, should be considered as appropriate in developing services responses and policies.