Scotland's Lord Advocate, Ruth Charteris KC, has written about the scale of domestic abuse in Scotland, describing it as a societal problem rather than a "women's issue" that requires collective action to tackle. She notes that while overall reported figures remain troublingly high, there has been growing use of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act (DASA), which she says reflects improving legal and public understanding of coercive control and abusive patterns of behaviour, rather than isolated incidents.

Figures released this week showed 34,586 domestic abuse charges were reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in 2025-26, with 2,815 of these prosecuted under DASA — the highest number since the Act came into force in 2019, though still only around 8 per cent of all charges. Charteris explains that DASA, hailed as a "gold standard" law, allows prosecutors to charge a course of abusive conduct including physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse, without needing to prove actual harm occurred, and she has issued guidance urging police to investigate abuse as a pattern of behaviour. She cites the case of Lee Milne of Dundee, convicted in April of culpable homicide following his wife Kimberley's suicide, as an example of the law's application, while stressing that legislation alone is insufficient without proper investigation and prosecution.