Officials Applaud New Strangulation Laws

April 16, 2011
Andrea VanValkenburg

PLATTSBURGH — Officials say more than 2,000 people across the state have already been arrested under new strangulation laws.

The laws — first- and second-degree strangulation and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation — went into effect Nov. 11, 2010, giving police and prosecutors more specific legal guidelines when dealing with choking assaults.

A recent report that reviewed the initial use of the laws showed widespread use of the new standards.

"In a mere 15 weeks, the new laws resulted in 2,003 people in New York state being charged at arrest or arraignment with a strangulation offense," Sean Byrne, acting commissioner of the State Division of Criminal Justice Services, said during a recent teleconference detailing the report.

"It clearly points out the fact that there was a critical need for this new legislation."

SPECIAL LAWS

Byrne, who called the data startling, said it showed a "very significant response" to the new laws.

Sixty percent of the charges made were in New York City, while 803 cases were filed outside the five boroughs.

Seventeen counties reported having charged at least 15 people under the new guidelines between November and Feb. 22, while only four counties — Cattaraugus, Hamilton, Lewis and Tioga — had yet to use the laws.

Byrne said many people have asked why the new statutes were needed and that "the simple and direct answer was police and prosecutors were having difficulty handling situations of (strangulation violence)."

Previously, no law specifically encompassed the act of strangulation, and so it was most often prosecuted under harassment laws, which are typically applied in cases of shoving and lesser instances of stalking.

Because choking can often leave no evidence of serious physical injury, stiffer assault charges couldn't be applied, which is why advocates pushed for special strangulation laws.

"It's particularly a major problem with crimes of domestic violence and was something that wasn't adequately charged in the past," Byrne said.

POWER TACTIC

The new misdemeanor law — criminal obstruction of breathing — doesn't require any evidence of physical injury and has been the most widely used so far.

"Eighty three percent of charges that were filed in those first 15 weeks were the misdemeanor offense," he said.

The top felony charge — first-degree strangulation — had been used in less than 1 percent of the recent cases.

Amy Barasch, executive director of the State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, said her office is also "really excited with the initial outcomes of this new legislation."

She said the fact it has been used so robustly shows that the law-enforcement community was "eager and waiting" for new standards to deal with choking crimes.

"Strangulation is a tactic of power and control used in domestic-violence situations," she said during the teleconference, adding that strangulation can easily cause severe injuries or even death.

"The new laws come much closer to articulating the severity of the offense."

EFFECTIVE TOOL

Statistically, victims of strangulation are 10 times more likely to become victims of domestic-violence homicides.

Barasch said she hopes the law will prevent more serious crimes from happening and that "laws like this change everybody's perception of a crime."

Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne, who is the president of the District Attorneys' Association of New York State, supports the new laws. "As these dramatic statistics show, law enforcement has been putting this statute to very good use," he said.

"The strangulation laws provide law enforcement with strong and effective tools to stop domestic abusers and rapists who use strangulation as a means to subdue their victims."

Essex County District Kristy Sprague applauded the new laws and will soon host a nationally renowned speaker to help spread awareness with area law-enforcement during a collaborative domestic-violence prevention seminar in June.