Gender based violence overview

Overview of gender based violence

Gender based violence (GBV) is a major public health, equality and human rights issue. It covers a spectrum of violence and abuse, committed primarily but not exclusively against women by men. This includes, but is not limited to

  • domestic abuse
  • rape and sexual assault
  • childhood sexual abuse
  • stalking and harassment
  • commercial sexual exploitation
  • harmful practices - such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage and so-called ‘honour’ based violence.

Here you can find information on the relationship between GBV and health inequalities, as well as national and local actions that can be taken to address GBV in Scotland.

  • 81% of domestic abuse incidents reported in 2021-22 had a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator. [1]
  • 18% of women and almost 8% of men have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. [2]
  • 23% of women and 5% of men experience sexual assault as adults. [3]
  • 74% of forced marriages in the UK involved female victims. [4]
  • 81% of all cases featuring sexual exploitation referred to the National Referral Mechanism for human trafficking involved female victims. [5]
  • There are clear links between stalking and domestic abuse as 22% of stalking and harassment incidents were committed by a partner or ex-partner. [6]

GBV and health inequalities

GBV occurs across all levels of society.

Gender inequality is a root cause of violence against women and girls. Despite the progress being made, persistent inequalities remain between men and women. Globally, two factors related to gender inequality are strongly associated with GBV.

  1. Social norms support violence as a means of conflict resolution.
  2. The unequal position of women in relationships and society – violence occurs at higher levels in societies in which men are viewed as superior and possess economic and decision-making power.

It is important, however, to recognise that abuse also occurs in same sex relationships and can be experienced by transgender people. While men are at less risk of GBV, some men are abused in similar ways by other men and women. Similarly, many boys are sexually abused in childhood.

Not everyone experiences the same level of risk. Factors such as age, financial dependency, poverty, disability, homelessness and insecure immigration status can heighten vulnerability to abuse or further entrap people experiencing abuse. Also, many people experience more than one form of abuse e.g. sexual violence and domestic abuse within relationships.

The physical, emotional and psychological consequences of GBV can be profound and damaging. They are predictors of poor health and strong risk factors for poor health outcomes.

National actions

Interventions that are most likely to be effective in reducing health inequalities in relation to GBV include:

  • changes to fiscal policies
  • the promotion of gender equality
  • structural changes to the relative positions of women and men in society.

To find out more about the nature of GBV, its impact on health and how to respond you can download our guidance on what health workers need to know about GBV.

Equally Safe strategy

The Scottish Government’s Equally Safe strategy aims to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls. It recognises the need for a broad range of actions to address GBV and is designed to:

  • deliver greater gender equality
  • ensure a swift, robust response to perpetrators of violence and abuse
  • promote early, effective intervention to prevent violence or mitigate its impact.

Public Health Scotland is a national delivery partner of Equally Safe and supports NHSScotland’s implementation of it. We work with NHS Boards to promote activity to improve the identification and management of GBV, and to enhance workforce capacity to respond. It also works with Scottish Government colleagues to integrate GBV within key strategy and policy developments.

Visit the Scottish Government site for the Equally Safe strategy

Violence against women is a public health issue

On 25 November 2019, NHS Health Scotland, COSLA and the Improvement Service held a national conference, with support from the Public Health Reform team and the National Violence Against Women Network, to address violence against women (VAW) as a public health issue. You can read their briefing note Violence against women is a public health issue and the subsequent conference report.

Public Health Scotland is working with partners to progress a public health approach to tackling VAWG and gender inequality in Scotland and to embed this in work on Scotland’s public health priorities.

Read about VAWG and the public health priorities.

Local actions

At a community level, reducing abuse often involves multiple exposure to a range of interventions over time. Proven interventions that support longer term prevention of abuse include:

  • early years interventions
  • school based programmes
  • support and outreach to enhance protection and reduce re-victimisation
  • collaboration between agencies to provide a coordinated response with a focus on increased identification (e.g. routine enquiry) and provision of tailored advocacy.

Our inequalities briefing details the steps Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) can take to address GBV.

Support services for the public

Members of the public can be directed towards Scotland’s Service Directory on NHS inform which provides information on:

Last updated: 02 October 2023