horace mann school's publication for gender issues

horace international domestic mann arts
strangulation by Alex Perry
Simply put, under normal circumstances,
causing another person physical harm is not
only unethical, but also punishable by law.
Specific criteria exist to determine whether
a person’s conduct is legal. For example,
the law defines assault as an intentional
threat to cause bodily injury to another by
force under circumstances that cause the
other person to have well-founded fear of
imminent peril. An important distinction
that must be made when referring to
assault is the existence of contact. A charge
of assault can be made even if the threat
of harm is not completed. To put this
jean mariano
definition in perspective, a person that
pulls out a fake gun that looks real may be
liable for assault, even though there was
never any intention of a shot being fired.
The threat is what constitutes assault, not
the actual fulfillment of the threat. The
legal definition of battery is the intentional
touching of a person against that person’s
will; whether injury occurs as a result is not
pertinent. An extreme example of battery
can be a situation in which somebody spits
on another person. Even though this is in
no way life threatening, a charge of a battery
has still been committed. While keeping
these definitions of illegal actions in mind,
it should be very surprising to anybody that
it was not until recently that the intentional
strangling of a person was determined
to be illegal in the state of New York. On
June 7 th , 2010, New York State passed the
anti-strangulation bill, sponsored by State
Senator Eric Schneiderman and Assembly
members Joseph Lenton and Helene
Weinstein.
Strangulation is an action that can be
considered somewhat common in domestic
violence and sex crime cases. The original
reasoning for the lack of punishment
after strangulation is that this act does
not always leave visible signs of injury. In
reality, the lack of physical signs should be
disregarded when considering whether or
not strangulation is an illegal act. Strangling
can be more dangerous than punching, and
death by strangulation can occur in only
a few minutes. The anti-strangulation bill
urged the state of New York to make this
“terrifying and life-threatening” abuse
illicit and put the perpetrator under the
jurisdiction of the law.
The way the law handles (or does not
handle) strangling has had a negative effect
on adolescents. It has become increasingly
aware to doctors that teenagers are playing
a very dangerous game that involves
choking themselves almost to the point
of unconsciousness in an attempt to get
high. A recent article published in the
New York Times focused on a 16 year old
that had killed himself using a homemade
noose trying to play this game. Although
obviously not the only way to play, there
have been instances of participants choking
each other as a method to play this absurd
game. Videos showing how to play this
game have shown up on Myspace; some are
considered “instructional” videos, while
others are just examples of kids playing this
game. The teenagers playing this game are
obviously not taking the risks associated
with it seriously enough, although it seems
as though the law is not either. If the law
does not determine the strangling of a
person a crime, why should these people
view their game as more dangerous than
engaging in illicit drug use
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