Acid throwing or vitriolage is a form of violent assault.^[1] Sometimes the crime is called acid attack. The attackers throw acid or other corrosive substances at their victims. Usually they throw it at the targets' faces. They want to damage skin tissue, even to expose and to dissolve the bones.^[2] The consequences of these attacks include blindness and permanent scars of the face and body.

In India, the number of acid attacks have been rising.^[3] There had been 68 acid attacks in Karnataka alone (of which Bengaluru is the capital) since 1999. These are only the cases that have been reported.^[4] Unlike India, Bangladesh has introduced the death penalty for throwing acid and laws strictly controlling the sales of acids since 2002.^[5] An important role for the introduction of that legislation had the Acid Survivors Foundation.

Acid throwing is a crime in most countries in the world. Many Islamic countries have the concept of qisas, or retributive justice. With this, a victim can ask that the attacker be disfigured in a similar way. That way, an Iranian court ordered that the attacker of a woman who was blinded by such an attack, be blinded as well.^[6]

According to researchers and activists, countries with many occurrences of acid attacks include Bangladesh,^[7] India,^[8][9] Nepal, Cambodia,^[10] Vietnam, Laos, United Kingdom, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Pakistan,^[11] and Afghanistan. Acid attacks have been reported however in countries around the world, including:^[12][13]

Additionally, evidence for acid attacks exists in other regions of the world such as South America, Central and North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.^[12] However, South Asian countries maintain the highest incidence of acid attacks.^[17]

Police in the United Kingdom have noted that many victims are scared to come forward to report attacks, meaning the nobody knows how many attacks have happened.^[46]

• Domestic violence
• Monira Rahman

• Dasgupta, Shamita Das (2008), "Acid Attacks", in Renzetti, Claire M.; Edleson, Jeffrey L. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 1 (1st ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, pp. 5–6, ISBN 978-1-4129-1800-8

• Bangladesh: Acid Attacks in Bangladesh: A Voice for the Victims
• Cambodia: Living in the Shadows: Acid Attacks in Cambodia Report
• China: Hospital offers surgery to victim of acid attack
• South Asia: Acid attacks on the rise in South Asia
• Pakistan: A 16 year old boy was badly injured in an acid attack after he refused a Muslim cleric's sexual advances
• Thailand: 6 teens hurt in acid attack
• Iran: Woman blinded by acid wants same fate for attacker