Scotland: Children should know not only women are victims of violence

Article here. Excerpt:

'DOMESTIC abuse – there's no excuse. No excuse, that is, to continue to peddle the myth that only females are victims of this criminal behaviour.

Last Wednesday, the BBC announced schoolchildren in England and Wales will receive compulsory lessons about domestic violence in an effort to reduce attacks on women and girls.

Clearly unaware of the irony, the newsreader's next item referred to the recapture of Jane Andrews, the former royal aide who is serving a minimum of 12 years for the beating and stabbing to death the man who refused to marry her.
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Let's be clear: women are far more likely to be victims of domestic violence than men. However, the number of males who are abused by female partners is significant and growing. In Scotland, police reports where men have been harmed by female partners has increased 110 per cent since 1999-2000. In 2007, Strathclyde police reported that more than 3,000 incidents involved violence by females on males, compared to more than 20,000 incidents of male-on-female violence.

While under-reporting affects the statistics of both genders, most researchers in the field agree under-reporting is a far greater problem regarding information on the number of male victims. Women have been encouraged to report violent behaviour while men remain the invisible victims, unwilling to come forward for fear of embarrassment.
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In my opinion, the Scottish government's message on domestic abuse is seriously flawed. Our political leaders should be saying strongly to the public that all violence in the home is unacceptable, no matter the gender of the abuser. It is also imperative schools take a more even-handed approach when discussing the issue of abusive relationships.'