Violence is preventable, not inevitable

Together, we can tackle violence

Each year more than 100 people are killed in violent attacks in Scotland. It's a shocking statistic but it doesn't have to be this way.

We don't have to accept that lives are lost through needless, mindless violence. We don't have to accept that violence is an inevitable part of life. That's why the Violence Reduction Unit was created, to develop a national approach to tackling violence across Scotland - and to show that violence is preventable, not inevitable.

Browse our website to find out what's being done to tackle violence.

Spring 2012 newsletter now available

Download our latest newletter here

Alesha Dixon backs initiative to train vets to help victims of domestic abuse

Britain’s Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon is backing a pioneering project to train vets to help domestic abuse victims.

The Domestic Abuse Veterinary Initiative (DAVI), developed by Scottish charity Medics Against Violence (MAV) together with Crimestoppers, the Links Group, OneKind, the Pet Fostering Service for Scotland and the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), will see vets trained to spot the signs of abuse in animals and their owners and encourage victims to report to the police, support services or to give information about the abusers anonymously to Crimestoppers.

Campbell Collaboration Systematic Review Strongly Supports Efficacy of National Network for Safe Communities Strategies

A Campbell Collaboration Systematic Review, the gold standard in evaluating social science interventions, has found “strong empirical evidence” for the effectiveness of the approaches to addressing serious violent crime and overt drug market developed and advanced by the National Network for Safe Communities, a project of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

VRU conference: Scotland and Violence Prevention

Friday 12 – Monday 15 October, 2012, Scottish Police College, Tulliallan, Kincardine, Fife, Scotland

Download the save the date PDF

Online campaign launched to raise awareness of teen relationship abuse

An online campaign to raise awareness of teen relationship abuse has been launched by the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and Zero Tolerance.

The campaign features an animation based around the traditional “he loves me, he loves me not” flower game, with the falling of each petal highlighting potentially abusive behaviour.

view the animation here

Have you got the bottle?

Alcohol is a key factor in violence, being an underlying factor in half of all murders. But how do we tackle such a long standing problem? VRU co-director Karyn McCluskey on the need for a call to arms – and radical thinking.