Following concerns raised by the Domestic Violence Death Review Team that strangulation offences “were not being charged under the NSW offence of strangulation, but rather were being charged as common assault or assault occasioning actual bodily harm offences”, the NSW Department of Justice has commenced a review into the effectiveness of section 37 of the Crimes Act 1900. Section 37 prohibits strangulation, a significant form of domestic violence.
This Issues Backgrounder provides a range of information on the effectiveness of section 37 of the Crimes Act 1900. It presents recent data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in order to determine whether, and to what extent, section 37 is being used, leads to convictions, and results in appropriate penalties.
Tom Gotsis
Parliamentary Research Service
Issues Backgrounder 3, 2018