WE predicted that the first instinct would be to “recoil and deny”, writes Carlos Alba. In a leader last week, we cautioned that the easy response was to go on the defensive, question the evidence, anything but face up to the reality.

Yet the day after The Sunday Times published details of a UN study naming Scotland as the most violent country in the developed world, Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, did all those things.

The story was picked up by all the Scottish and UK media and by newspapers across the world, including The New Zealand Herald and the New York Post.

Yet, responding to the understandable shock that the report unleashed, Jamieson told BBC Radio Scotland it was “simply not people’s experience” that members of the public in Scotland were routinely attacked.

This despite the report’s findings that 3% of Scots had reported being victims of assault, compared with 1.2% of Americans.

She then claimed the figures were out of date, and that the executive had initiatives in place to tackle the problem.

However, on the same radio programme was Dr Jan van Dijk, head of analysis at the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, who revealed that another report by his organisation, due to be published next month, will offer little comfort for the executive. It will show violence in Scotland is getting worse rather than better.

Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed by The Sunday Times today, show that Scotland has one of Europe’s highest murder rates. The study is based on statistics collected by the WHO from individual governments.

Jamieson’s head-in-the-sand attitude was replicated last week by Chief Constable Peter Wilson of Fife constabulary, who said: “The general picture of Scotland around the world is not one of a violent country and that must be borne in mind. In fact, many other properly researched surveys put Scotland at the top as a country where people want to come to work and visit.”

The fact that Scotland can be a warm and welcoming country is not the issue, but the testimony of professionals on the frontline speaks volumes for the fact that the ugly face of the country has not disappeared.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, head of the Strathclyde police violence reduction unit, describes areas of Scotland where “interpersonal violence is almost accepted as legitimate, a community norm, something that cannot be changed”.

David Ritchie, an accident and emergency consultant at Glasgow’s Victoria infirmary, said the UN figures were a “national disgrace” and that he was “embarrassed as a Scot that we are seeing this level of violence.”

Shobhan Thakore, a veteran A&E consultant at Ninewells hospital in Dundee, speaks of more and more patients who are “completely unreasonable, and that aggression is closely related to people being intoxicated”.

All agree that ducking the problem is not the answer: something must be done, and done quickly.

Recent horrific murders are only the headline grabbing figures in what is a worrying trend across Scotland. Violence manifests itself on the west coast of Scotland, where knife killings are commonplace.

However, every town and village is affected to a greater or lesser extent.

It is important not to overstate the problem — fuelling the fears of the vulnerable — but the culture that is gripping Scotland, with the violent few spoiling the standard of living of the law-abiding majority has to be tackled head on.

This important debate must not be silenced by politicians.

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