Repeat violence in Scotland: a qualitative approach

Content warning

Please note that due to the focus on lived experiences of repeat violence, this research report necessarily provides descriptions of childhood abuse (including incest, physical and sexual abuse, and neglect), domestic abuse (including serious physical violence, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, and coercive control), serious physical assault and injury, stalking, kidnapping, murder, rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, anti LGBTQI+ violence, racial violence, violence in institutions (including residential children's homes, schools, prisons, and homeless accommodation), self-injury (including suicide), death, bereavement, miscarriage, blood, wounding, drug and alcohol use (and addiction), and psychological trauma. The Executive Summary, and Chapters 1, 2 and 8 touch upon these topics in summary form, but do not include any graphic detail. Chapters 3 to 7 cover the issues outlined in greater depth and include verbatim quotations containing graphic detail, which some readers may find distressing. The verbatim quotations also contain swearing, which some readers may find offensive. In line with the aims and qualitative design of the research, we have included verbatim quotations to illustrate the ways in which participants made sense of their experiences – as well as to enable their authentic voices to be heard. The composite narratives presented in Chapter 4 are perhaps the most difficult read, illustrating participants' multiple experiences of various forms of violence and harm, and their cumulative impacts. The Table of Contents provides a guide to the themes covered in each individual chapter.