Here is an odd thing: get yourself beaten up by a stranger walking home and be assured of widespread sympathy, the prompt attention of the police and a robust attitude from the bench. Sustain the same injuries or worse in the privacy of your own home and a curious ambivalence kicks in. The fact of an assault being "a domestic" impacts on attitudes in a number of strange ways as if the location of the assault and the relationship to the perpetrator diminishes the pain.

Even so, there are some very real differences to the grievous consequences of bodily harm acquired behind your own front door, not least the fact that your assailant continues to share your home, probably your bed and, in a depressing number of cases, regards casual violence as an extension of his conjugal rights.

I say "his" not to minimise the harm done to male victims, merely to acknowledge that the overwhelming problem lies with male on female attacks.

It is because of the sensitivity, complexity and often the inconsistency of dealing with domestic violence that court 13 in Glasgow's sheriff court took on a very specific role in October 2004. Since then it has dealt exclusively with domestic abuse cases with a dedicated procurator-fiscal depute, four dedicated sheriffs and a range of support services for victims, one of which, Assist, has been funded specifically for the purpose. The evaluation of the pilot has just been published, showing a higher proportion of guilty pleas and conviction rates than traditional courts but, most importantly, a much speedier route to court; an initial appearance within a month in three-quarters of cases as opposed to one-fifth.

Equally, three-quarters rather than 13% came to trial within six weeks. A further plus is the use of probation rather than fines and deploying programmes such as Change, which tries to stop the assailant resorting to the use of gratuitous violence, and counselling for the alcohol abuse that sometimes exacerbates it.

On the day this report appeared, the Women's Support Project in Glasgow held an event to which they invited many women who had worked on the pilot as support services, and also abuse victims. Interestingly, many of them proved sceptical about the enthusiasm of the Scottish Executive to roll the programme out across Scotland. To understand the victims' reluctance you also have to understand the immense effort it takes to go down the legal route in the first place, not because you are accepting of violence, but because you are terrified of incurring more for your trouble.

Court 13 has enjoyed a certain amount of success because a lot of innovative resources were plumbed in, and that audience clearly felt that help would be spread too thinly if other courts were designated before equally supportive structures for victims were in place. The report itself acknowledged that there were not enough places on programmes for perpetrators to help them confront and alter their behaviour. All of which suggests we are on the right lines, but need to hasten slowly if we don't want to undermine and dilute the progress.

What provoked the most debate that night was a demand from some victims that a register of domestic abusers be established mirroring the one used to protect children from convicted sex offenders. Outside of any other consideration this would seem pretty impracticable, but it's indicative of the pent-up frustration many women feel in a world which seems to downgrade domestic abuse or, in the case of rape, continue to come up with new reasons why the victim was basically at fault because of the way she dressed or drank.

En route from America is a campaign featuring a cleavage and the message that displaying one is a matter of individual choice and not an invitation to sexual assault. And it's curious, is it not, that in a court case where both accused and alleged victim have been drinking together, the first is routinely excused in the press on the grounds of impaired judgment, but the latter invariably condemned for social excesses.

As we were reminded again this week the reporting rate for rape is low and the conviction rate abysmal. Yet a "family" supermarket is currently selling a T-shirt showing the double silhouette of a woman standing back to back with the legend "if at first you don't succeed, buy her another beer". If that is what still passes for wit in 2007 we have a long journey still to make, and we need to make it in the company of the vast majority of men who also reject violence.

Working together we changed the culture on the acceptability of drink-driving; we need to mobilise the same communal sense of disgust over domestic brutality.