Women tell their stories of surviving domestic abuse with BBC One Scotland

Disclosure – Surviving Domestic Abuse airs next week…

Through home footage and candid testimony, seven women tell their stories of surviving domestic abuse. With incident rates rising over the past decade, Disclosure – Surviving Domestic Abuse questions whether the justice system is helping victims or if it’s part of the problem.

For more than a year, Disclosure followed seven women from across Scotland as they tried to escape violence and seek justice against the men who abused them.

Every eight minutes, a report of domestic abuse is made to police in Scotland. Dr Marsha Scott, Scottish Women’s Aid says: “I think it’s really, really easy to say ‘Why doesn’t she just leave?’…women don’t stay in  abusive relationships because they like them. They stay in abusive relationships because we’ve made it so difficult for them to leave.”

As this special hour-long Disclosure documentary highlights, almost 90% of women who experience abuse don’t report it, but for those who do, they find themselves part of a system under serious strain.

Disclosure – Surviving Domestic Abuse Monday 11 March, BBC One Scotland & BBC iPlayer, 9 pm