The number of domestic abuse incidents in Scotland could be more than one million annually, according to researcher Allan Moore.
Criminal charges related to domestic abuse hit a five-year high at 33,425 in 2020/21. But campaigners say the true figure is greater.
SafeLives believes that before seeking help women endure an average of 50 incidents and typically wait up to three years before seeking help.
“The most recent Scottish crime figures showed 16.5% of adults had experienced [domestic abuse], and that equates to around 700,000,” Moore, a criminology and criminal justice lecturer at West of Scotland University, was quoted as saying by the Sunday Post newspaper.
“When you consider most will have suffered multiple incidents, it’s easy to see the figure rise to over a million instances a year. There is no black and white proof of that figure. But all the circumstantial threads of evidence point to it being the truth,” he added.
