Intimate Partner Violence Related Strangulation: Does a Legally Mandated Protocol Improve Police Detection and Response?

• In Event: Intimate Partner Related Strangulation

Abstract

Recent research has noted that non-fatal strangulation in the context of intimate partner violence remains largely undetected by police, despite significant threats to a survivor’s morbidity and mortality. Indeed, survivors have been reluctant to report strangulation and police have been ill-equipped to identify the signs and symptoms of strangulation in these contexts. In 2018, the City of Burleson, Texas enacted a municipal ordinance mandating a formal and systematic response to all cases of potential strangulation, even when strangulation was not explicitly disclosed. The present study uses the population of IPV incidents involving strangulation reported to the Burleson Police Department between 2016 and 2020 to assess the effect of Burleson’s 2018 strangulation Ordinance on police detection and response. Findings are presented and additional policy implications are discussed.

Authors

• Cortney Franklin, Washington State University

• Tara O’Connor Shelley, Tarleton State University