Strangulation: Often the Last Warning for Domestic Violence Victims
Photo Credit: CNN
As published on al.com
Gabby Petito was strangled to death. Strangulation can lead to loss of consciousness in seconds and death in just minutes. This is why it’s considered a huge red flag on the continuum of domestic violence assessment and represents a very thin line between life and death for the victim.
Rachel Snyder points out in her book No Visible Bruises that sixty percent of domestic violence victims are strangled during the course of an abusive relationship and the overwhelming majority of stranglers (99%) are men. Those who lose consciousness are at the highest risk of dying twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the incident due to blood clots, strokes, or aspiration. Studies also now clearly show that a victim who is strangled one time is 700% more likely to be seriously assaulted again and 800% more likely to become victim of a homicide by their partner (The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2008).
Alabama has seen too many incidents of choking by men – some of them trained as police officers. At least two current or former officers have been arrested in Alabama in the past month on charges related to domestic violence. They have not been convicted.
The act, unfortunately, is common in Alabama and beyond.
The more accurate description is strangulation, as there is an important distinction between choking and strangulation. Strangulation refers to pressure being applied from the outside, cutting off airflow and blood vessels in the neck, and preventing oxygen from reaching the brain. Choking, meanwhile, refers to a blockage inside the throat which makes it hard to breathe.
Injuries from strangulation are often internal, which is why a forensic exam is necessary to illuminate the skin to show where and how a woman has been strangled. An abusive cop know signs of strangulation are much less noticeable than blunt force trauma. He is someone who has trained to kill. Someone who’s respected in the community for upholding the law, but is intimidating by his very presence and has been well versed in using weapons and inflicting pain, often with invisible bruises. He also knows the terror inflicted through strangulation. Prior to passing out the victim believes she will certainly die.
In the aftermath of the Eric Garner strangulation murder at the hands of New York City police, most police departments have banned chokeholds as a technique to subdue a suspect. Nevertheless, most cops undoubtedly have this effective torture device in their repertoire when abusing a girl friend or partner.
“If a person has their hands around your neck, they’re telling you they have the power to kill you,” says Allison Dearing, executive director of One Place Metro Alabama Family Justice Center. That’s why at One Place in Birmingham, using a Cortexflo camera, the forensic nurse from the Crisis Center can take high resolution photography to corroborate evidence of strangulation.
According to The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 97%of victims are strangled with hands, 38% report losing consciousness, 35% are strangled alongside sexual assault and abuse, and 70% believed they were going to die. Often, even in fatal cases, there are no external signs of assault. While fifty percent of the victims have visible injuries, only 15% could be photographed.
Across the country in emergency rooms, victims are not routinely screened for strangulation or traumatic brain injury, Snyder writes. Because the victims tend to have poor recall of the incident, “This means diagnoses are rarely formalized, the assaults and injuries are downplayed, and abusers are prosecuted under lesser charges.”
In Alabama, the charge of domestic violence by strangulation or suffocation is a Class B felony, which means, that if convicted, the defendant faces a prison sentence from 2 to 20 years and a monetary fine of up to $30,000.00. Sometimes, however, strangulation is only charged as a misdemeanor when half of all domestic violence homicides had prior strangulation. Forty-eight states classify strangulation as a felony.
Often it happens that the police department will conduct an internal investigation when an officer is charged in a domestic violence incident, which probably means the officer will only be subject to administrative leave or desk duty. But domestic violence isn’t relegated to behind closed doors at home. If an officer is willing to strangle his wife or girlfriend, then is the public safe in those same hands?
Strangulation is one of the most lethal forms of domestic violence. The perpetrator literally has control of the woman’s last breath. If the woman survives, the psychological effects are devastating and she may suffer from traumatic brain injury like we’ve seen in the case of veterans, football players, and car accident victims.
The fact is that for too many women strangulation is the last warning shot before their abuser succeeds in killing them. It’s important for District Attorneys and nurses and doctors to educate themselves on the place strangulation exists on the continuum of violence against women. Only with appropriate education, charging, and sentencing can we break that potentially lethal progression of violence.