Women’s stories of non-fatal strangulation: Informing the criminal justice response
| Date | 01 April 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895820949607 |
| Published date | 01 April 2022 |
| Author | Robin Fitzgerald,Heather Douglas |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820949607
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(2) 270 –286
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895820949607
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Women’s stories of non-fatal
strangulation: Informing the
criminal justice response
Heather Douglas and Robin Fitzgerald
The University of Queensland, Australia
Abstract
Non-fatal strangulation is commonly reported by women who have experienced intimate
partner violence and it has been identified as both an immediate risk to health and life
but also a risk for future serious harm and even death. While some Australian states and
Canada have followed the lead of American states in introducing criminal offences of non-
fatal strangulation the United Kingdom is yet to do so. Non-fatal strangulation offences have
come with challenges of definition and identification. The success of criminal justice responses
requires an understanding of the ways in which women understand and describe their non-fatal
strangulation victimisation. We analyse 24 women’s experiences of non-fatal strangulation as
a basis for considering how to ensure that jurisdictions considering introduction of a new
non-fatal strangulation offence or reform of an existing offence do not reproduce obstacles
to prosecution and legal recognition and suggest a model definition of non-fatal strangulation
for an offence.
Keywords
Criminal response, intimate partner violence, non-fatal strangulation, stand-alone offence
Introduction
Women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) commonly report being
subjected to non-fatal strangulation (NFS) by their partners. Evidence shows that a
majority of women escaping IPV and residing in shelters report experiences of NFS from
a previous partner (Joshi et al., 2012; Wilbur et al., 2001). Research shows that NFS is
common in relationships where there is IPV with studies reporting rates between 3% and
68% depending on the sample (Bendlin and Sheridan, 2019: 1529). Whether carried out
Corresponding author:
Heather Douglas, School of Law, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Email: h.douglas@law.uq.edu.au
949607CRJ0010.1177/1748895820949607Criminology & Criminal JusticeDouglas and Fitzgerald
research-article2020
Article
Douglas and Fitzgerald 271
with hands or feet, by squeezing or pushing on the neck, with arms used in chokehold or
with a ligature, strangulation is highly dangerous. A variety of clinical symptoms are
associated with NFS, including sore throat, changes to vision, vocal cords, hearing and
breathing, loss of sensation, memory loss, anxiety, loss of consciousness, paralysis, and
pregnancy miscarriage (Foley, 2015; Funk and Schuppel, 2003). Even where there are no
immediate visible injuries, some victims have died several weeks or months after the
attack because of blood clots, stroke and brain damage caused by the strangulation.
Strangulation can cause unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes
(Strack and Gwinn, 2011), and is the cause of death in at least 8% of IPV related homi-
cides in Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018: 77) and 17% of
deaths in the United Kingdom (Long and Harvey, 2020, 28). There is also evidence that
strangulation in the context of IPV is a risk factor for future serious harm and death.
Glass et al. (2008) found that the odds of experiencing some additional form of life-
threatening violence in the time after being strangled by a partner increased by 700%.
IPV death reviews have identified that an incident of NFS often precedes IPV homicide
(Websdale, 2019).
In the United Kingdom, there have been calls for the introduction of a stand-alone NFS
offence (Bonham and Ktena, 2019; Edwards, 2015). One by one, Australian states began
to introduce discrete NFS offences since 2014 (Douglas, 2019). Canada introduced an
NFS offence in 2019 (section 267 Criminal Code 1985 Ca) and most American jurisdic-
tions have introduced NFS offences (Battered Women’s Justice Project, 2014). Some of
the key aims of stand-alone NFS offences include recognising the high degree of danger
and risk associated with NFS, clear identification of NFS on the criminal record and
addressing the obstacles that exist to prosecuting NFS under traditional forms of offences
such as assaults and attempted murder (Douglas and Fitzgerald, 2014: 236). In the context
of IPV, NFS is often part of an on-going pattern of coercive control (Stark, 2007).
In this article, we argue that many of the NFS offences that have been introduced may
not be drafted appropriately to respond to the risks associated with NFS and the safety
needs of victims of IPV that have been identified in existing research. We begin with a
review of the literature to situate NFS within the framework of coercive control, before
analysing current offences of NFS, and their definitions, in the United States, Canada
and Australia. We then turn to an explanation of our methods and results, which draw on
in-depth interviews with survivors of NFS to assess themes emerging from their experi-
ences that bear on the appropriateness of current approaches to the drafting of NFS
offences. Based on our analysis, we then suggest a model NFS offence.
Strangulation through the lens of coercive control
Increasingly, law, policy and research define and understand IPV as a pattern of behav-
iour aimed at coercively controlling the victim rather than a discrete incident or set of
discrete incidents (Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration, 2020, [3.1]; Barlow
et al., 2020; Crown Prosecution Service, 2020; Stark, 2007). Research has demonstrated
that an abuser’s exercise of coercive control usually involves the use of a variety of
methods including physical violence, threats, deprivation of basic needs, surveillance
and degradation to hurt, degrade, intimidate, exploit, isolate, and control their victims
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