The phenomenon of sexual strangulation in Britain

A survey suggests the risky practice is more common than you might think

“I’m vanilla, baby/ I’ll choke you, but I ain’t no killa, baby,” raps Jack Harlow on his number-one hit from 2023, “Lovin’ On Me”. According to a survey of over 2,000 people published in December by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS), a charity, more than one in three Britons aged between 16 and 34 have been strangled during consensual sex on at least one occasion. IFAS was established with Home Office funding in 2022, when non-fatal strangulation was made a distinct offence in England and Wales. Previously, crimes involving strangulation were often charged as common assault (a category that also covered simply shaking a fist at someone or using threatening words).

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Dangerous liaisons”

From the January 11th 2025 edition

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