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New strangulation law: Police making five arrests a day

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 28 Feb 2019, 7:25AM
The new legislation was introduced in a bid to curb family violence and made strangulation and suffocation a criminal offence. Photo / Getty Images

New strangulation law: Police making five arrests a day

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 28 Feb 2019, 7:25AM

Police have charged almost five people a day with strangling or suffocating their partners since a new family violence law came into force criminalising such acts in December.

The new legislation was introduced in a bid to curb family violence and made strangulation and suffocation a criminal offence.

Previously there was no separate offence for strangulation as it was treated as assault.

The change was part of the Family Violence Amendment Act, replacing the Domestic Violence Act.

Since then 416 people in total have been charged, around 33 per week and almost five each day.

CEO of Women's Refuge, Doctor Ang Jury told Kate Hawkesby the charges show how common this type of violence is. 

"Victims talked about this all the time and I'm not quite sure people really believed us but certainly the ability to charge is demonstrating that that was actually true."

However, she said it is not yet known whether the legislation is resulting in an increase in women coming forward about abuse.

"While we have had over 300 charges at the moment, none of them have been through the court, so we don't know how they are going to be treated by the judiciary."

She said the police have made improvements in the way they treat women who have been abused.

"Police are getting better and this law change and the way they are using it demonstrates that to us which is really good."

Jury said victims of strangulation often don't really realise how dangerous it is.

"When someone deprives you of oxygen you could die...this isn't a slap around the ear, this is genuinely life threatening, so for no other reason than that I think this [legislation] was a really excellent move." 

New Zealand has the worst rate of family and intimate-partner violence in the developed world and police are called to an incident every four minutes.

DO YOU NEED HELP?

If you're in danger now:
• Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours of friends to ring for you.
• Run outside and head for where there are other people.
• Scream for help so that your neighbours can hear you.
• Take the children with you.
• Don't stop to get anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay.

Where to go for help or more information:
• Shine, free national helpline 9am-11pm every day - 0508 744 633.
• Women's Refuge: Free national crisis line operates 24/7 - 0800 refuge or 0800 733 843.
• Shakti: Providing specialist cultural services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and their children. Crisis line 24/7 0800 742 584 
• It's Not Ok: Information line 0800 456 450.

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