Why Is Strangulation Rising? What Experts Say About Choking, Porn, and Domestic Violence in 2026

Content note: this post discusses strangulation, sexual violence, and domestic homicide.

If it feels like everyone is suddenly talking about strangulation, it is not your imagination.

Photo by Yindy Chi

Police departments are reporting sharp increases. Domestic violence advocates say abuse is escalating faster than they have seen before. Doctors in Europe are writing about it in medical journals. And on November 6, 2026, England and Wales will make it a crime to possess or publish pornography that shows strangulation.

So what is happening? Why now? And who is being hurt?

The answer, according to the people tracking this, is that two things are happening at once. Men’s strangulation of women in abusive relationships is rising in several U.S. communities. And “choking” during sex has gone from rare to routine for a generation of girls and young women, taught largely through pornography.

These are not separate stories. Both are about men putting their hands on women’s necks, and about a culture that has learned to call it normal.

What Is Happening: The Numbers

Communities that track strangulation separately are reporting large jumps in 2026.

• Cincinnati, Ohio: Police data shows strangulations rose 65% from January through August 2026 compared with the same months in 2025. A police crime analyst said the city’s increase is part of a national trend. (WVXU)
• Kalamazoo County, Michigan: Reports of intimate partner strangulation went from 20 in the first quarter of 2025 to 63 in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 215%. The county recorded three domestic violence homicides in those three months alone, more than in all of 2025. (WWMT)

Among young people, the numbers on sexual strangulation are even more striking:

• A 2024 study by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation in the UK found that more than a third of adults aged 16 to 34 had been strangled or choked at least once during sex. (Heart/Sky News)
• U.S. research led by Dr. Debby Herbenick found about 58% of female college students had been choked during sex, and roughly a quarter of them were first choked between ages 12 and 17. (Psychology Today)
• The Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention reports that nearly half of male college students say they have choked or strangled a partner during sex. (DomesticShelters.org)

Read those last two numbers together. Girls as young as 12 are being strangled, and the people doing it are overwhelmingly boys and men.

Why Now? Some Experts Point to Easy Access to Pornography

The explanation researchers give most often for sexual strangulation is pornography. Here is what they are finding.

It went from almost nowhere to everywhere. Australian educator Maree Crabbe, who has interviewed young people about pornography for 15 years, cites a study of popular porn from the early 2000s through 2024. Strangulation went from appearing in basically zero percent of scenes to about 15 percent. (ABC News Australia)

It is where young people learn it. In an Australian study, 61% of young people said pornography was how they found out about strangulation, ahead of movies, friends, social media, and partners. (ABC News Australia, 2024)

Watching it is linked to doing it. A study of young men found that watching pornography was associated with more exposure to strangulation scenes, which in turn predicted a higher likelihood of strangling sexual partners. (Wright et al., via ResearchGate)

The volume is enormous. Casey Gwinn of the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention says his institute found more than 2.6 million websites with videos of strangulation during sex. (DomesticShelters.org)

Pop culture repeats the message. Researchers also point to memes, social media videos, fan fiction, television, and popular songs that present choking as exciting or expected.

Girls go along out of fear. Advocates say this normalization has made strangulation look like a male sexual ideal, so some girls and women participate because they fear losing the relationship. That is not freely given consent. It is pressure.

Doctors are seeing it in exam rooms. Dr. Katja Kero, who leads a center for sexual assault victims in Finland, wrote in a 2026 medical journal commentary that choking comes up prominently in forensic exams of young patients. She and her co-authors note that a Swedish court ruled consent cannot justify acts that risk grave harm or death. (Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica)

Why Now? What Domestic Violence Experts Are Saying

Police, prosecutors, and advocates who work with abused women give a different set of reasons for the rise in domestic strangulation.

Abuse is escalating faster. Kristin Shrimplin, CEO of Women Helping Women in Cincinnati, says her organization is seeing first-time callers and first-time hospital visits where the violence moves quickly to strangulation, weapon threats, and sexual assault. Women are not getting the slow build-up they might once have had time to recognize. (WVXU)

Money pressure is a driver. In Kalamazoo County, an assistant prosecutor named economic instability and lack of access to resources as major drivers of the more severe cases. The local police chief noted that many women do not report because they depend on their abuser financially. (WWMT)

The help is shrinking. Shrimplin says only about one dollar out of every seven in domestic violence funding goes to prevention. Federal Victims of Crime Act money has been cut deeply across the country, and shelters are turning women away. (We covered this in Shelter Full or Closed? Where Survivors Can Still Find Help in 2026.) When prevention and early intervention disappear, violence has more room to escalate.

The wrong person sometimes gets arrested. Heather Bellino, CEO of the Texas Advocacy Project, explains that a woman being strangled will fight for air. That means the scratches are often on him, while her injuries may not show yet. Some women end up arrested instead of the man who strangled them. Texas has made strangulation a focus of its new domestic violence prevention task force for this reason. (KSAT)

The UK Just Drew a Line

Starting November 6, 2026, it will be a criminal offense in England and Wales to possess or publish pornography that realistically depicts strangulation or suffocation. The same law also bans incest pornography and adults roleplaying as children under 16. (GOV.UK)

• Penalties: up to 2 years in prison for possessing strangulation pornography, and up to 5 years for publishing it.
• Platforms: online platforms face fines that could reach 10% of global revenue. (Deseret News)
• Why: the ban came out of Baroness Gabby Bertin’s 2025 independent review of pornography. Her report found that porn showing women being choked has devastating real-world consequences. She has said strangulation in porn had become “totally normalised.” (Express & Star)

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones tied the ban to the government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. The End Violence Against Women Coalition welcomed it and urged the government to make sure it is actually enforced.

The UK is treating strangulation pornography as a public safety issue for women and girls, not as a matter of private taste. In the United States, no comparable federal law exists.

Why Strangulation Is Never “Just” Anything

Strangulation is one of the clearest warning signs that a man may kill the woman he is abusing.

• A woman who has been strangled by her partner faces 750% higher odds of being killed by him. If he has access to a firearm, the increase is 1,100%. (WINGS)
• About half of strangulations leave no visible physical signs, which is why they are so often minimized by police, doctors, family, and the woman herself.
• Experts warn that as little as 5 pounds of pressure on the neck can cause unconsciousness, brain injury, or death. (Psychology Today)
• Brain cells begin to die within seconds of losing oxygen. There is no safe way to do it.

Lawmakers are starting to respond. In March 2026, the Oklahoma House voted 89 to 0 to require people convicted of domestic violence by strangulation to serve at least 85% of their sentence. The bill’s sponsor noted that many currently serve only about a third. (Oklahoma House)

When a man puts his hands on a woman’s neck, he is showing her that he is willing to decide whether she breathes. That is power and control in its most direct form.

What We Still Don’t Know

Honest reporting means naming the gaps.

• Is it more violence, or more counting? As more states make strangulation a felony and train officers to recognize it, more cases get recorded. Some of the rise may reflect better detection. That does not make the violence less real. It means it was likely being missed before.
• Is easy access to porn driving domestic strangulation? The research linking pornography to sexual strangulation is strong. None of the police reports cited here named porn as a cause of the domestic violence increase. Whether one feeds the other has not been directly studied.
• Is it national? Cincinnati’s police analyst calls it a national trend, but there is no single national count of strangulation cases yet.

What is not in question: girls and women are being strangled in their homes and in their beds, and far too many have been told it is normal.

If It Happened to You

If a partner, a date, or any man has put pressure on your neck, whether in a fight or during sex, here is what Survivors and advocates want you to know.

Get medical care, even if you feel fine. Injuries to the neck can be internal and delayed. Tell the doctor or nurse plainly that you were strangled, and ask whether imaging of your neck is needed.

Watch for these signs, even days later:

• Hoarse or changed voice
• Trouble swallowing or breathing
• Neck pain, swelling, or tenderness
• Tiny red spots in the eyes or on the face
• Dizziness, headaches, vision changes, or memory gaps
• Having passed out, or losing control of your bladder

Trouble breathing, sudden weakness, confusion, or slurred speech are emergencies. Call 911.

Document what you can, if it is safe. Photos of any marks over several days, notes on what happened and when, and the names of anyone you told.

Talk to an advocate. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. If local shelters are full, our guide Shelter Full or Closed? Where Survivors Can Still Find Help in 2026 lists other routes.

You did not ask for this. You do not have to explain it away. And you are not alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is strangulation rising in 2026? Experts give two sets of reasons. Researchers point to pornography normalizing choking during sex, especially among young people. Domestic violence advocates point to faster escalation of abuse, economic pressure, and cuts to prevention and shelter funding.

Is choking during sex the same as strangulation? Yes. “Choking” is the casual word, but pressure on the neck that restricts blood or air is strangulation, whatever it is called.

Can you be strangled and have no marks? Yes. About half of strangulations leave no visible signs, while internal injuries can still be serious.

Why did the UK ban strangulation pornography? A government-commissioned review found that porn showing women being choked has devastating real-world consequences. The ban takes effect in England and Wales on November 6, 2026.

Is strangulation a warning sign of homicide? Yes. A woman previously strangled by her partner faces 750% higher odds of being killed by him.

What should I do if I was strangled? Seek medical care even if you feel fine, watch for delayed symptoms, document what you can safely, and contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

Sources

• Domestic violence has increased in 2026, CPD data shows (WVXU, Oct 5, 2026)
• Kalamazoo County sees rise in deadly domestic violence; strangulation cases triple (WWMT, 2026)
• Crime and Policing Act 2026: Offences relating to pornography (GOV.UK)
• Ban on strangulation and incest in porn to come into force in November (Express & Star, Oct 2026)
• UK to ban three types of extreme pornography from next month (Sky News via Heart, Oct 16, 2026)
• Pornography law UK platform accountability (Deseret News, Oct 16, 2026)
• Why strangulation has become part of sexual ‘playbook’ for young Australians (ABC News, Sep 27, 2026)
• Young people are choking each other during sex (ABC News, Jul 2024)
• The Dangerous Rise of Sexual Strangulation Among Teens (Psychology Today, Apr 2025)
• Pornography Consumption and Sexual Choking (ResearchGate)
• Strangulation During Sex: Can You Ever Consent? (DomesticShelters.org)
• “And then I got strangled”: Dangerous trends of sexual choking among young people (Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 2026)
• Topic of strangulation front and center for Texas’ new domestic violence prevention task force (KSAT, May 2026)
• Domestic Violence and Strangulation: 4 Facts and 4 Myths (WINGS)
• House Approves Increased Penalties for Domestic Violence by Strangulation (Oklahoma House, Mar 10, 2026)