Northern Ireland Strangulation and Asphyxiation Offences June 2023 – June 2025
Key Findings:
– 1,974 strangulation and asphyxiation offences were recorded by the Police Service Northern Ireland in the first two years of the legislation
– Offences rose from 906 in Year 1 (2023–24) to 1,068 in Year 2 (2024–25)
– When adjusted for population size, PSNI recorded a lower average of offences than England and Wales in both years
– All demographic and contextual categories show consistency across the first two years of the legislation
– Promising practice is highlighted in the small percentage of ‘unknown’ data across the categories analysed
– The lack of suspect demographic data and case outcomes, due to details of strangulation offences not being held in a central system, limits our overall understanding of strangulation from a Northern Ireland context
Read the report: Northern Ireland Strangulation and Asphyxiation Offences June 2023 – June 2025
This report outlines the strangulation and asphyxiation offence police recorded data from Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) for the first two years of their standalone strangulation and asphyxiation legislation (26th June 2023 – 25th June 2025). The patterns from the PSNI data show a similar pattern to data found from England and Wales data in previous IFAS reports: that reports of strangulation are rising, and that victim demographics and the number of cases flagged as domestic abuse incidents have remained constant across the two years of recorded data. However, the lack of suspect data, contextual information, and case outcomes provided by the PSNI means that a full understanding of strangulation cases in Northern Ireland cannot be fully understood.
Northern Ireland enacted its own non-fatal strangulation and asphyxiation legislation on 26 June 2023, under Section 28 of the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, following England and Wales by just over a year. The data in this report was obtained from PSNI through a Freedom of Information request.
PSNI recorded 1,974 offences across the two years – 906 in 2023–24, rising to 1,068 in 2024–25. Adjusted for population size, this represents a rise from 47 to 55 offences per 100,000 people, placing Northern Ireland within the range recorded across England and Wales and slightly below the average for both years. The direction of travel is also shared: PSNI’s year-on-year increase aligned with 74% of the police forces in England and Wales that provided data.
Victim demographics remained consistent across both years. Around three in four victims were female, more than four in ten victims were under 30, and children and young people were recorded as victims in both years. Three in four offences were flagged as domestic abuse.
The report also identifies areas of promising practice in PSNI recording. The proportion of data recorded as ‘unknown’ was low across most categories, with victim ethnicity recorded as unknown in under 10% of cases, compared with 25% in IFAS’s most recent England and Wales analysis. This directly reflects recommendations made in previous IFAS police data reports. Recording of victim disability remains an exception, with 50% of records unknown or missing.
However, suspect demographics, the context of the offence, and criminal justice outcomes could not be provided. PSNI advised that this information is not held within a central system, meaning three separate departments would be required to retrieve it and with Freedom of Information requests subject to an 18-hour cost limit, only victim and domestic abuse flagged data could be returned.
Dr Zoe Callon, Research Manager at IFAS and author of the report, said:
“The data provided by Police Service Northern Ireland outlining their first two years of recorded offences since the introduction of their strangulation and asphyxiation legislation, shows similar pattern to those seen in our previous reporting of England and Wales data. Strangulation offences continue to rise, with victim demographics and domestic abuse flagged cases remaining consistent over the two years.
“However, the inability to provide suspect data or case outcomes, due to the information not being held together in a central database, does limit our understanding of strangulation within a Northern Ireland context.”
Bernie Ryan OBE, CEO of IFAS, said:
“This report demonstrates that the standalone offence of non-fatal strangulation and asphyxiation has been used in Northern Ireland since its introduction two years ago. The information provided to IFAS by the PSNI offers stronger victim demographic data than we have seen in police force data from other parts of the UK. This is helpful in understanding who is being harmed through these offences; however, it does not provide information about the demographics of those responsible for the harm.
“To better understand risk, patterns of offending, and the potential for escalation, it would be valuable to have access to demographic information relating to both victims and perpetrators, alongside greater insight into charging and criminal justice outcomes.
“We would welcome the opportunity to work with the PSNI and partners across Northern Ireland to strengthen the collection and use of this data, helping to improve offence profiling, risk assessment, and the evidence base needed to support the delivery of Northern Ireland’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy
“Behind every statistic is a person. Improving how we identify, record and respond to strangulation is critical to protecting victims, preventing further harm, and holding perpetrators to account.”
The report makes three recommendations:
– Data regarding strangulation offences should be held together in a central system within all police forces, to assist with the data retrieval process
– Additional information, including suspect information, contextual information and case outcomes, should be provided to give the full context of strangulation offences
– Strangulation and asphyxiation offences should be separated, to account for the nuances and differences between these types of crimes
IFAS is keen to encourage contact from police forces in Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland, who would like to develop and better understand the data they hold on strangulation reports: contact@ifas.org.uk
Previous IFAS police data reports
– Year 1: https://ifas.org.uk/police-data-reports-2024/
– Year 2: https://ifas.org.uk/police-data-on-strangulation-and-suffocation-offences/
– Year 3 – Report 1: https://ifas.org.uk/strangulation-offences-continue-to-rise-across-england-and-wales/
– Year 3 – Report 2: https://ifas.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Strangulation-and-Suffocation-Offences-June-2024-June-2025-Report-2-updated-version.pdf
