Intimate Partner Violence Strangulation Among Same-Sex Couples

Background and Purpose: 

Strangulation by an intimate partner is a pervasive problem that can lead to a range of devastating effects on survivors’ mental and physical health. Despite increased attention to strangulation, including an emerging understanding of it as an effective mechanism of coercive control, strangulation in same-sex relationships has been almost completely overlooked.  Thus, the aims of this study were to examine cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) strangulation reported to police within same-sex relationships according to gender, and compare these to IPV strangulation cases within opposite-sex relationships.

Methods:

A total of 19,429 IPV cases were recorded in a single Police Department in the Southwest U.S. from 2011 to 2013. Of those, strangulation was documented in 1,438 cases (7.4%). A small portion of strangulation cases (76; 5.3%) occurred among same-sex couples (52.6% female couples vs. 47.4% male couples), with the remainder (1,362; 94.7%) occurring among opposite-sex couples (98.5% of these involved female victims). Chi-squares and logistic regression were used to examine the association of strangulation with relationship status, coercive control, minor injury, and demographic variables. In order to balance the samples of same-sex and opposite-sex couples, a random sample of opposite sex couples with female victims were included in multivariate analysis (n=2,207).

Results: 

In all same-sex relationships, strangulation co-occurred with other types of physical violence (e.g., punching, pushing, slapping); however, psychological aggression (e.g., harassment, terrorization) was not commonly reported. Injuries consistent with strangulation such as abrasions, scratches, bruises, and discoloration were reported in slightly over 30% of cases. Hospitalization was rare. Arrests were made in 31.4% cases with female couples and 40.0% of cases with male couples. More cases with male couples involved assaults by former partners, as compared to female couple cases (40% vs. 11.4%, p <0.01). A comparison of same-sex (SS) and opposite-sex (OS) strangulation cases revealed that the following occurs more often in OS cases: abrasions (X²(1) = 5.1, p<.05), intimidation (X²(1) = 4.8, p<.05), former romantic partner (X²(1) = 5.0, p<.05). Although strangulation was more likely to coincide with acts of coercive control across the full sample (OR=1.68, p<.01), coercive control was less likely to be identified in SS relationships (X²(1) = 15.2, p<.01). Finally, both male (OR=.55, p<.01) and female (OR=.50, p<.01) same-sex couple IPV was less likely to involve strangulation than opposite-sex couples with female victims.

Conclusions and Implications:

Overall, findings demonstrate that IPV strangulation is not strictly a male-on-female phenomenon and should not be treated as such. It does appear, however, that strangulation is less likely in same-sex couples than in opposite-sex couples with female victims. Study limitations necessitate additional research to include incidents beyond those that are reported to and catalogued by law enforcement, especially given evidence of considerable underreporting by same-sex IPV victims and officers’ gendered attitudes toward IPV. Nevertheless, this study is an important first step toward increased understanding of IPV strangulation within same-sex relationships and warrants the inclusion of attention to same-sex strangulation in current legal advocacy efforts and in trainings to improve detection, response, and – ideally – prevention.