Women are dying because they no longer have anyone to help or anywhere to go. How many more have to die before we act?
Campaigners call for urgent reversal of cuts to crucial services as figures reveal 74 domestic killings in Scotland in the last 10 years
Urgent action to reverse funding cuts to frontline services must be reversed to save the lives of women threatened by violent partners, experts warned yesterday.
Support agencies and campaign groups spoke out after nine Scots women lost their lives to partners or exes in just 12 months.
Over the last decade, 74 Scots women have died in domestic killings. Most were stabbed to death.
Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) described cuts to the funding of frontline support services for women leaving abusive relationships as a “bonfire”.
Up to 70% of services have had their funding cut, making it harder for victims to get help.
Campaigners say multi-agency domestic homicide reviews – which are already conducted in England and Wales – should be carried out after each killing to help identify early warning signs.
New legislation was introduced in Scotland in April to criminalise psychological abuse as well as domestic violence. But campaigners say police offices and other specialist workers need better awareness of this type of abuse – called coercive control – and improved risk assessment techniques because it is often a precursor to potentially lethal violence.
SWA chief executive Marsha Scott said the austerity policies of the last decade had hit the very services which help women under threat.
She said: “It’s that support that helps women go to the police, that helps them connect to appropriate legal advice when it’s available, and that helps them make a plan for whether they can stay safely at home.
“Our services were much better funded 10 years ago.
“The long-term solution is to change the way we fund local services because the existing model isn’t fit for purpose.
“We have to stop the bonfire of local services.”
One frontline support worker, who did not want to be named, said options open to many women seeking refuge from violent partners have reduced because of spending cuts, adding: “Services that were there 10 years ago, might not be there now. Women don’t know where to go or who to turn to. It should not be this way. How many more must die?”
Rachel Adamson, co-director of Zero Tolerance, a charity campaigning to end men’s violence against women, said: “The number of domestic killings in Scotland is appalling but not surprising.
“Men abuse, attack, and kill their partners because society lets them. We excuse the behaviour of men and we don’t believe women when they ask for help. The only way to prevent violence against women is to end gender inequality for good.”
One of the UK’s leading experts on domestic homicides called for society as a whole to recognise controlling behaviour as the biggest predictor of domestic homicide.
Criminologist Dr Jane Monckton Smith, a former police officer, said: “This is an epidemic. It’s a public
health crisis. It’s the biggest cause of traumatic death for women across the world.
“We’re not talking about a couple of murders here and there, we’re talking about a very big problem.
“Women are getting killed behind closed doors day after day after day.
“There will be another couple in the UK next week, we just don’t know their names yet.
“We’ve got to do something about this, it’s just gone on too long.
“Where is the anger? Why isn’t the whole of Scotland standing up and saying what is going on?”
Dr Monckton Smith studied 372 homicides – including Scottish cases – and identified an eight-stage timeline of offenders’ behaviour patterns in the run-up to killing their partner or ex-partner.
Controlling behaviour rather than violence was the biggest red flag for homicides, coupled with a woman’s decision to end the relationship.
Her research, published in the summer, is now used to train police officers across the country. Dr
Monckton Smith said: “Coercive control is an umbrella and everything below it is methods used to exert control – financial abuse, violence, gaslighting, sexual abuse.
“Those people who are controlling are the most likely to go on and kill a partner or former partner. It’s terrifying.”
Police Scotland says it has already trained 11,000 officers and staff, including call handlers who are likely to be a desperate victim’s first point of contact.
On average, it takes 34 domestic incidents before a victim makes a report to police.
They receive a report every nine minutes and in 2017/18 the force recorded 59,541 incidents of domestic abuse.
Detective Superintendent Debbie Forrester, Scotland’s lead officer for domestic abuse, said: “We know that under-reporting is a huge issue with gender-based violence and domestic abuse.
“Part of the new legislation is trying to get victims and others to understand that it’s the psychological and emotional and financial abuse not just physical violence.
“It’s an escalation of those behaviours that can also lead to a domestic homicide not just an escalation of physical violence.”
Det Supt Forrester said it was essential that when a victim finally tells the police they’re being abused, officers take appropriate action.
“That might be the only opportunity you get to prevent further abuse and escalation of that abuse, which could be domestic homicide,” she said.
“We would always say the simple things which are really listen to the person, validate what they’re saying, believe them and understand what the behaviours are then help them or give more information about the help they can get.”
The experts call for more focussed action came as organisations and businesses around the world join in 16 Days of Action, a campaign to raise public awareness and encourage employers do more against domestic violence.