New law helps choking victims

A new law against choking has filled a potentially tragic gap in the state's legal arsenal on domestic violence. The large number of arrests in its first few weeks on the books provides ample evidence of the need and its effectiveness.

Before November, if you strangled someone in New York, even to the point of unconsciousness but short of death, you'd likely be charged only with second-degree harassment, a violation punishable by up to 15 days in jail.

The problem was that choking, while life-threatening, usually results in no visible physical injury. Without that it's difficult to prove the more serious charge of assault. The new law made choking either a misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to a year behind bars or, in more serious circumstances, a felony with a 15-year max.

In the first 15 weeks after the law took effect, 2,003 people were arrested or arraigned on the new charges. Included were 111 arrests in Suffolk -- the most in any county outside New York City -- and 77 in Nassau.

Choking is a staple of domestic violence, so the vast majority of those charged were men and their victims were women. And because domestic violence is a serial crime with escalating violence, officials said a woman who has been strangled is 10 times as likely as one who hasn't to one day be killed.

Now authorities can intervene more forcefully before things go that far.