MORE than 60,000 incidents of domestic abuse were reported to Scottish police forces, with more than 2500 people having reported 11 or more incidents in the past, official statistics show.
Police recorded 60,080 incidents in 2012-13, up from 59,847 in the previous year, at a time when the problem is described as a "top priority".
Of the total, 61% involved repeat victims of abuse - about the same proportion as in 2011-12.
However, concern was raised that 2592 people had reported 11 or more incidents to police in the past.
Scottish Conservatives' leader Ruth Davidson said: "We need to discover why so many offenders are able to repeat violent abuse. If someone is being physically abused within the walls of their home, it is down to us as a society to provide help and support to ensure it stops.
"That can be achieved by improving the support network, giving people more of an option to escape their situation and coming down harder in the courts on those who think it acceptable to beat someone up on the basis they live together."
Equalities Minister Shona Robison said a new strategy targeting violence against women would be published next year.
"No-one should doubt the Scottish Government's determination and commitment to tackle domestic abuse," she said.
"These incidences of violence remain far too prevalent in our society. That is why we are taking action to help victims of such attacks and are delivering substantial financial support to help victims and prevent abuse from happening in the first place.
"I welcome the proactive and resolute response to domestic abuse from Police Scotland, which has made tackling domestic abuse and rape two of its top three priorities."
Half of all incidents led to the recording of a crime or offence, down from 54% in the previous year.
Of those, common assault accounted for 42% and threatening or abusive behaviour accounted for 19%.
Women were victims of men in 80% of all incidents, which was 1% lower than the previous year.
The Government said funding to tackle the problem had increased 62% since 2007 to £34.5 million between 2012 and 2015.
Police Scotland chief superintendent Bob Hamilton said: "We recognise the harrowing impact domestic abuse has on victims, their families and the wider community.
"In the last few years we have dedicated significant resources towards tackling domestic abuse. As well as supporting victims, we have placed a much greater emphasis on targeting repeat and serial offenders."
Lily Greenan, manager of Scottish Women's Aid, said: "We expect reported incidents of domestic abuse to continue to rise as the awareness of domestic abuse increases. We commend the high priority Police Scotland has given to tackling domestic abuse since its establishment in April."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article