Behind the Statistics: Strangulation and the Reality of Violence Against Women

Content Warning: This article contains discussion of violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse, sexual assault, strangulation and suffocation, homicide, and the psychological impacts of trauma. It also references sexual violence, abuse within relationships, and harm to children through exposure to violence.

Readers who may find these topics distressing are advised to proceed with care.

Last year, violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the UK was declared a national emergency by the police. This violence is everything from domestic abuse, harassment and sexual assaults. It is estimated that 1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse, and 1 in 3 women will suffer sexual assault in their lifetime. These statistics show the depth of this issue, and how important it is that changes are made to education, support and justice systems to ensure victims are protected.

In 2022, new government legislation turned strangulation and suffocation from being included in charges like assault or bodily harm into stand-alone offences which can be punished accordingly. It highlighted the growing realisation that strangulation is a deep enough issue that it warrants recognition as a violent act.

There were over 40,000 cases of strangulation reported in 2025, and that is probably a mere fraction of the total, seeing how unfortunately many assaults simply aren’t reported.

The Institute for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS) was created following the introduction of this legislation. They aim to raise awareness of strangulation and the associated risks, conduct research and develop resources. They also train professionals in responding to and supporting victims of strangulation.

We were proud to host Harriet Smailes , a Research Manager at IFAS at The Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Conference 2025. It was an excellent way to ensure that strangulation received its own segment, and her session is outlined below. Harriet’s discussions were provoking in their importance and power. We learnt a lot from the session and believe you can too.

This article summarises the goals of IFAS, what strangulation is and how educating and acknowledging the risks of strangulation is the first step towards raising awareness of its danger and ensuring we know how to support victims.

Defining Strangulation and its Differences to Suffocation

It is important that we begin by defining strangulation, as many people often mistake strangulation and suffocation as the same thing.

“Strangulation can be defined as obstruction or compression of blood vessels and/or airways by external pressure to the neck impeding normal breathing or circulation of the blood.” – IFAS

Suffocation is depriving a person of air. It is also referred to as asphyxiation or smothering. Suffocation doesn’t affect blood vessels, purely the victim’s ability to breathe. The difference comes in how suffocation doesn’t have to involve restricting the neck.

It is important that people understand that strangulation should not be associated with other forms of assault. Whilst all forms of assault are terrible, strangulation is one of the most dangerous and traumatic acts of violence a victim can face. It puts pressure on one of the most vulnerable areas of the body, the neck. It can damage the essential blood vessels in the neck, which can lead to:

• Cardiac arrest
• Strokes
• Motor difficulties
• Speech difficulties
• Disorders
• Seizures
• Paralysis
• Loss of consciousness
• Death

And that’s just the physical risks, the trauma of strangulation can lead to mental health conditions such as:

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Dissociation
• Memory Problems
• Psychosis

Another tragic detail is that the IFAS estimate that in 1/3 strangulations, a child is present. Children internalise seeing these violent acts and it can cause significant life-long trauma. It can also normalise this act of violence, making children more likely to repeat the act later in life.

Harriet made sure to show us that the lasting impacts of strangulation can be extremely serious, which is why it is important that people are aware of the dangers and how important it is to report these acts of violence. It is also important that cases of strangulation are punished severely, which is made more possible by the legislation mentioned earlier.

“Between April 2010 and March 2021 every year on average 18% of female homicide victims in England and Wales were killed by strangulation or suffocation.” – IFAS

With how prevalent strangulation is as a form of murder, there is logical reasoning to charge every assaulter who uses strangulation with attempted murder. You can understand at least how and why strangulation legislation has been put into place.

After more than a decade of campaigning, the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 was passed into law, followed by the Victims and Courts Act 2025. These new laws aim to put victims at the heart of the justice system, providing victims with greater protections and a stronger voice throughout the legal process. This is a pressing issue in VAWG, as many people are afraid to speak out, expecting nothing to change. We’re hosting The Victim Services Conference 2026 to help people to understand this new act and how to best support victims. Find out more about this upcoming event.

How common is strangulation?

Harriet then went on to highlight research from 2022, from Women’s Aid, that found that 1/5 sexual report assaults were related to strangulation. This, alongside the 40,000 cases reported year on year, conveys just how important it is that more awareness is made to tackle this violence.

Beyond strangulation, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that 2.3 million people experienced domestic abuse in 2024. If a fifth of this number included strangulation in some form, that would be around 460,000 strangulations. Of course, these numbers are not exact, but by rough estimates they highlight the scale of this issue, just in the UK.

Integrally too, the IFAS ethos stresses that behind each statistic, each number, there is a person. Someone who has gone through a life-threatening ordeal. A victim that needs support, respect and room to heal.
The first step to supporting these victims is to understand what they have been through. IFAS offers resources and training on increasing awareness and knowing how to support people who have suffered strangulation.

Strangulation in Sexual Intercourse

Another area that Harriet stressed was the use of strangulation in sex. A recent survey from IFAS saw 55% of respondents having been strangled or strangled someone else during sex. Harriet expressed how damaging this can be – even when fully consensual.

This is echoed by the government, who on the 4th of November announced: “Possessing or publishing depictions of strangulation or suffocation in porn to be criminalised with duties on platforms to stop the proliferation of these images” – Ministry of Justice

Seeing this abuse in pornography, especially from a young age, can be extremely damaging to how people perceive strangulation. These things can easily be normalised. Indeed, in their surveys, it was the younger age ranges that were more used to and accepting of strangulation.

“Our position ultimately is that there is no safe way to strangle” – Harriet Smailes

Harriet also addressed a common misconception that there are safe ways to strangle someone during intercourse. This is not true, any sort of pressure on your airways can damage blood vessels or cause a loss of consciousness.

What Can Practitioners Do?

To close, Harriet reminded people of the valuable resources and training available at IFAS. Its website offers research reports, training webinars and can direct you to support.

Harriet also expressed how important it is to remove any stigma related to abuse in general, and for victims to understand how dangerous strangulation truly is. Often, victims of abuse can brush it off, potentially blaming themselves or just trying to forget what has happened. It is important that victims raise this violence and remove themselves from those situations. Making sure that you create areas of trust and respect will mean that people feel more secure talking about their experiences.

“My suggestions would be to risk assess, take seriously the risks posed by strangulation, and consider what that means for an individual in a particular context, and respond appropriately.” – Harriet Smailes

Indeed, this point is very important, what that means for an individual in a particular context. Each case is unique, and everyone deals with situations differently. It means that practitioners need to be adaptive in their support to ensure that they can support individual challenges and experiences.

We’d like to thank Harriet and the Institute for Addressing Strangulation for this incredibly important session. The topic discussed here, and throughout the entire Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Conference 2025, is very challenging. Yet the conversations are necessary. Change needs to happen and the first step is educating and understanding.

The legislative changes introduced in 2022 are a good start, and so is the government’s renewed effort on tackling VAWG. The first step to creating change is through shifting the narrative and creating a shared understanding across the UK. The work of IFAS and Harriet Smailes does exactly that.