Non-Fatal Strangulation: An Empirical Review of the New Offence in England and Wales

Abstract

Following the introduction of specific non-fatal strangulation (NFS) offences into law in a number of other jurisdictions over the last 20 years, England and Wales introduced a new offence of Non-Fatal Strangulation as part of the Domestic Abuse Act (2021) in 2022. Drawing on data provided by 32 forces, this article examines how the offence has been used in the first 14 months of operation. Specifically, we explored the victim and suspect characteristics, relationships and case outcomes of recorded incidents by police and the pipeline between recorded crime and prosecution. Our findings support the limited evidence on NFS in England and Wales, and Australia in finding that most victims are female and most suspects are male, typically victims and suspects are young-middle-aged adults, and most NFS is domestic in nature. We also found Black victims and suspects to be overrepresented. Whilst the data indicates the new offence is being routinely used by police, and charge rates compare well to other crimes, around 90% of recorded incidents are not resulting in a prosecution or conviction. We consider the implications of these findings for research and practice.