How many men are victims of domestic violence in the UK?

In Kelvingrove Art Gallery, one of Glasgow's main museums, there is a permanent exhibition devoted to the issue of domestic violence. And in recent years Scotland - in contrast to England and Wales - has seen an increase in the number of people reporting incidents of domestic abuse.

Today the Scottish government released statistics that show 17% of domestic abuse victims are men who've been attacked by women. But how does this compare to the UK as a whole?

Here at Full Fact, we've already analysed the statistics on domestic abuse in England and Wales. Every year the British Crime Survey (now known as the Crime Survey for England and Wales) produces data on domestic abuse via a sample of victims. Its researchers estimated that in 2010/11 up to 1.2 million women and 800,000 men were victims of domestic abuse (7% and 5% of the population respectively).

While the Crime Survey collects data on victims, it does not collate information on those who perpetrate crimes. However, in the area of domestic abuse Scotland collects information on both the "abuser" and the "abused". 

Since 2002 Scotland's police forces have been producing gender-specific data. From the Scottish Executive's most recent statistics, we can see that in 2011/12 there were 59,847 incidents of domestic abuse. In 9,569 incidents (17% of the total) a man had been abused by a woman. We can compare this with the 659 incidents in which the victim and the perpetrator were both male (1% of the total).

To put these numbers in context, it's worth noting that 46,439 incidents (81%) involved a female victim and a male perpetrator. In the case of more serious incidents involving violence or sexual assault, men were far more likely to be the perpetrators of abuse.

In fact, in 90% of incidents involving a female perpetrator, a woman was either guilty of a "miscellaneous" offence or of "behaviour not resulting in a crime". (For men, the equivalent statistic is 86%).

However, since 2002 the percentage of domestic abuse incidents involving a male victim and a female perpetrator has increased (from 9% in 2002/03 to 17% in 2011/12). While there might be a growing number of male victims, it's thought to be the case that men are now more likely to report incidents of abuse.

It's important to note that the definition of domestic abuse applied by the Scottish government appears to be slightly different to that used in the Crime Survey of England and Wales. There's a general acknowledgement that the term "domestic abuse" includes a range of behaviours, ranging from emotional coercion to rape (whereas the definition of "domestic violence" relates specifically to any type of physical assault). However, the Scottish government adds a number of other offences, including "drunkenness", "drugs" and "vandalism" to its list of domestic abuse incidents. 

The Scottish statistics on the changing profile of those affected by domestic abuse are of interest in their own right. However, as it stands it's impossible to compare the figures with those from elsewhere in UK, as England and Wales do not collect such detailed data.