Scottish Violence Reduction Unit

The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit is a national centre of expertise in tackling violence. Working in partnership with Police Scotland and the Scottish Government, the SVRU aims to prevent violence wherever it’s found from the streets, to our classrooms, homes and workplaces. The SVRU has adopted a public health approach which treats violence as a disease. We seek to diagnose and analyse the root causes of violence in Scotland, then develop and evaluate solutions which can be scaled-up across the country. We are constantly innovating with the aim to make Scotland the safest country in the world. The unit was founded in 2005 by Strathclyde Police, who in the face of rising homicide rates wanted to try a different approach to tackling violence. Expanded to a national unit in 2006, the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit is directly funded by the Scottish Government with an annual budget of around a million pounds. Our team is made up of serving police officers, civilian police staff, experts and people with lived experience who work closely with colleagues and partners across health, education, social work and many other fields. We are motivated by the belief that violence is preventable, not inevitable.