Wendy: No Room for Complacency on Domestic Abuse as Incidents Soar

- Scottish Government soft touch sentencing plans fail abuse victims –
- Tough action key to get more victioms to come forward -

Wendy Alexander has criticised the Scottish Government’s scrapping of short term sentences as a failure to protect the victims of domestic abuse.

The criticism comes as the number of domestic violence cases soars by 1,500.

Currently 68% of those sent to prison for domestic violence got a sentence of less than 3 months.

The new presumption against sentences of less than three months, passed by the SNP Government in June, could mean that the majority of perpetrators of domestic abuse would escape jail.

Scottish Women’s Aid, in their members’ assessment of plans to scrap short sentences warned that they wouldn’t work and “most likely make matters worse”.

Paisley North MSP Alexander said that there was no room for complacency on domestic abuse.

Ms. Alexander said:

“1500 more domestic violence incidents marks a sizeable increase in these types of crimes and is yet another reminder that there must be no room for complacency on domestic abuse.

“By scrapping jail terms of less than three months, the Scottish Government will be letting more perpetrators of this despicable crime skip jail.

“There is no doubt that detection rates are up but to give the victims of abuse full confidence to come forward they must know that the strongest penalty awaits their attackers.

“By scrapping short jail sentences, the SNP Government risks failing the victims of domestic abuse.”