Research Hub of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit

Part of Police Scotland and directly funded by the Scottish Government with an annual budget of around £1million, the SVRU works to identify innovative, evidence-based solutions to violence. The team is made up of police officers, civilian police staff and people who are experts by experience. They work closely with colleagues and partners across health, education, social work, housing and many other fields. 

The then Violence Reduction Unit was founded in 2005 by Strathclyde Police, who in the face of rising homicide rates wanted to try a different approach to reducing violence. That year Scotland had been branded the most violent country in the developed world with 137 homicides in just one year, some 41 of those deaths were in the city of Glasgow alone. Following a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the city was dubbed the ‘murder capital’ of Europe. Since then, Scotland has worked hard with a 35% reduction in homicides between 20/11 and 2019/20. Glasgow city accounted for 41% of that fall. The VRU was made a national unit in 2006.

Research is key to a public health approach to violence prevention. This includes correctly identifying the issues, through to establishing effective interventions and evaluating what does and does not work to make Scotland safer. In this section you’ll find new research and reports, a range of SVRU resources and evaluations of our work, an archive of older material and some useful links to the work of relevant organisations which may be of interest.

Visit the Research Hub