Reports of domestic abuse in Angus have rocketed by more than 30% in the last 10 months.
The police received reports of 932 incidents between April 2013 and January 2014 220 more than the five-year average for the area.
The figures were revealed by Police Scotland in a report to the police and fire sub-committee of Angus Council’s scrutiny board.
Members of the board met to discuss the statistics in Forfar this week where Chief Superintendent for Tayside, Hamish Macpherson, described domestic abuse as “a scourge of Scottish society”.
He attributed the rise in reports to a possible increase in levels of confidence of victims to speak to the police about historical cases but said the fact the crime was still an issue was “untenable”.
“We have had 220 more incidents in Angus but I think that’s still massively under-reported,” he said.
“It is a real scourge of Scottish society. There is only oneway we can stop it and that is to get people to come forward.
“I think it will be a rising issue until people get the confidence to come forward. One place you should feel safe is in your home.”
Just under 80% of crimes and offences in domestic abuse incidents were detected by police and 97.6% of domestic abuse bail checks were conducted within the prescribed time frame of 24 hours.
Stop searches also took a massive boost in Angus with 3,230 carried out in the past 10 months a 195% increase.
Mr Macpherson added: “There is a reduction of overall violent crime in Angus and I have no doubt in my mind that stop searches assisted in that.
“If we take weapons out of people’s pockets, it is very effective in reducing crime. However, this is not just about violence and taking weapons out of pockets.
“It is about taking alcohol out of kids’ hands.
“The way we have recorded stop searches is now different and the bulk of our stop searches are alcohol and stolen property.”
In other stats, detection rates improved for serious assault, theft by shoplifting and common assault but rates for detections of theft by housebreaking, vandalism and robbery all dropped.
Chief Inspector Gordon Milne acknowledged the work carried out in the Brechin, Edzell and Montrose areas targeted at reducing rural property crimes.
He said: “Crimes of any description committed in rural areas pose a considerable challenge for investigators but we do the best we can to detect them when they are made known.”