The number of arrests in New Zealand for strangulation could be just the tip of the iceberg. 

Figures this morning reveal that since a new violence law came into effect in December making strangling or suffocating a partner an criminal offence, police have arrested 416 - or the equivalent of five a day.

The shocking figures have outraged Andrew Dickens, who says that the figures are "incredible".

"This was a quarter of a year. Let's times that by four. It could be, at the end of this year, we will have found 1600 people arrested for strangling people in this country, they are only the ones we've arrested.

"We don't know about all the others in the privacy of their home doing their own version of domestic violence that nobody knows about."

Dickens says that we have spent years on White Ribbon and domestic violence campaigns, but this shows that New Zealand is once again a nation of domestic violence. 

"It's such an insidious way of asserting power."

Talkback callers shared their experiences with him, including how it is not just between male and female lovers, but how it happens between parents and children and same-sex partners.