Choking Victims Finally Get Justice

You would assume placing your hands around someone’s neck and cutting off their air and blood supply would already be considered some pretty substantial violence. But in the past it was extremely difficult to prosecute for strangulation due to the lack of visible physical injuries.

New York recently upgraded choking from non-criminal harassment or battery to assault. While the law has been instated for only 15 weeks, over 2,000 people have been charged. 94 percent were men.

Thankfully the new law allows witness testimony and other courthouse measures to prove harm, such as obstruction of breathing or circulation.

Feminists are counting the development as a win.

“Strangulation is a tactic of power and control that is very common in domestic violence scenarios,” Amy Barasch, executive director of the State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, told Reuters.

Sean Byrne of the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services said 44 percent of women killed in New York in 2009 died as a result of domestic violence. “Domestic abusers aren’t usually first-time offenders and we’re expecting to see that as people get convicted of these offenses it will lead to solving other crimes.”

Dorchen Leidholdt argued before this law was instated batterers had an incentive to choose choking over other forms of abuse as they often escaped criminal charges and “perhaps emboldened by their impunity, choke their victims again.”

It is a relief to see some action on an issue feminists have been agitating for years. For too long has violence in domestic situations been overlooked as something occurring behind closed doors, one person’s word against another’s. Hopefully this law will deter batterers from strangulation, and prevent the harm and death of countless women in the future.

It may be idealistic, but it’s a start.

Contact the author here: brianna@morningquickie.com