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Police Data on Strangulation and Suffocation Offences
We requested data from the Home Office in 2023 pertaining to the number of strangulation and suffocation offences recorded by the police in the first year of strangulation and suffocation becoming a standalone offence (7th June 2022 – 6th June 2023). This request was made via the Freedom of Information (FOI) process.
Following the same FOI process, this report contains the data we have received from year 2 of the legislation (7th June 2023 – 6th June 2024).
Access the report here
This report presents a comparative analysis of the data obtained in year 1 and year 2*.
Key findings:
39,360 strangulation and suffocation offences recorded in 2023- 2024 compared to 23,817 recorded in 2022- 2023.
Evidential difficulties accounted for 70% of criminal justice outcomes with police in 2023- 2024 compared to 67% in 2022- 2023.
Reporting rate in each police force ranged from 24 to 111 reports per 100,000 people in 2023- 2024 compared to 23-98 in 2022-2023.
Where victim sex was known 77% were female and 23% were male in 2023-2024 compared to 81% females and 19% males in 2022-2023.
Over half (54%) of victim ethnicity for strangulation and suffocation offences was recorded as unknown by police in 2023- 2024.
*The data for 2023- 2024 included more police forces than in 2022- 2023.
Conclusions and recommendations
This report is timely, mirroring some of the key findings and recommendations from the recent report published by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner (DAC) Office, Shifting the Scales (January, 2025). Key issues such as data and accountability, multi-agency working and resourcing were highlighted as areas needing improvement to transform the criminal justice response to domestic abuse in the UK. From our research, at IFAS, we would agree that much needs to be done in order to improve data capture and reporting so that in the words of the DAC, “data from across the system is consistently and accurately gathered, integrated across the system, and readily accessible in order to drive transparency and accountability”.
Quote from report authors Harriet Smailes and Marianne McGowan:
“IFAS supports the government’s aims to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. However, without robust data to capture the true scale of the issue, who it impacts and the context that these incidences are occurring in, it will be impossible to accurately understand the experiences of victims and survivors. It is likely that over time by raising awareness and improving the data recorded we will in fact see the number of reported offences increase before any observable reduction to incidence. It is therefore essential that this information is recorded and reported on for many years to come following the change in legislation in 2022.”
IFAS are keen to encourage contact from police forces in England and Wales who would like to develop and better understand the data they hold on strangulation reports. Please do get in touch: contact@ifas.org.uk.
