If you are a man experiencing abuse or violence you do not have to put up with it. Help is available. Contact Men’s Advice Line on 0808 801 0327, Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, or Abused Men in Scotland (AMIS) on 0808 800 0024, Monday – Friday from 9am-4pm.  AMIS can be contacted by email on contact@amis.org.uk. You can also call the police on 101 or in an emergency call 999; Police Scotland will investigate all reports of domestic abuse regardless of the gender of the survivor or perpetrator.  All these contacts for men requiring assistance can be made anonymously.

White Ribbon Scotland focuses on male violence against women because of the massive scale of this problem and because the perpetrators of domestic violence are predominantly men and the victims women. In Scotland in 2011-12, 81% of recorded domestic abuse incidents were male violence against women.

Comparing violence committed by women and by men, Statistics Canada (2000 Report on Family Violence) notes that the result of men’s violence is five times as likely to require medical attention. Women are four times as likely as men to fear for their lives, and three and a half times as likely to be murdered by a male spouse than vice versa.

The experience or threat of violence has a devastating impact on the lives of women everywhere, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race, and culture. According to a study based on 50 surveys from around the world, at least one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The very fact that they are women makes them more vulnerable to experiencing violence.

Violence against women, particularly domestic violence, has historically been hidden, ignored and left off the human rights agenda. WRS wants to change this. We aim to challenge the attitudes about men and women in our society which perpetuate inequalities and allow violence to continue.