What does the law say about strangulation and consent?

A crime in every state

Alliance for HOPE International counts strangulation felony laws in all 50 states. South Carolina is the exception in one way: it has no standalone strangulation offense and covers it within its domestic violence laws. States write these laws differently. Some make strangulation its own felony, some treat it as a form of assault, some cover it only between partners or family members, and some start it as a misdemeanor that becomes a felony if someone passes out or is hurt. These laws generally don’t require proof of an intent to kill.

No visible injury needed

Federal law, which applies in places such as military bases and some tribal lands, makes strangling a spouse, partner or dating partner punishable by up to 10 years in prison. It defines strangling as impeding someone’s breathing or blood flow by pressing on the throat or neck “regardless of whether that conduct results in any visible injury or whether there is any intent to kill or protractedly injure the victim.” Pennsylvania’s law states that the lack of a physical injury “shall not be a defense.”

Consent

The Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention tells young people that “because choking is so dangerous, neither teenagers nor adults can legally consent to being choked/strangled.” In court, it depends on the state and on how badly someone was hurt.

Many state strangulation laws don’t mention consent, and the Model Penal Code, which many states draw on, allows consent as a defense to an injury mainly when the injury isn’t serious.

In 2012, Massachusetts’s highest court held that consent was no defense for a man who wrapped a necktie around a woman’s neck and pulled it tight, in a case where he said the encounter was consensual. In 2023, an Oregon appeals court upheld a jury instruction that strangulation has no consent element, in a case where the defendant said the choking was consensual. A few states, including Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, write lack of consent into the crime, and Pennsylvania allows a narrow consent defense.

Teenagers have no special right to agree to being choked. Criminal law may not count agreement from someone who is too young to judge how harmful something is. Below a state’s age of consent, a young person’s agreement does not make sex legal, though some states make exceptions for partners close in age.

If someone is hurt or dies

If a partner is hurt or killed, the person who choked them may be held legally and criminally responsible, even when both agreed to it. A review of US news reports by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom found 59 deaths from sexual choking between 2000 and 2025. In 51 of them, the person who did the choking was convicted: 33 of murder, 11 of manslaughter, 6 of homicide and 1 of domestic violence.

Schools and colleges

Under federal rules, violence by a current or former romantic partner, including choking without consent, can count as dating violence. Students can report it to their school’s Title IX coordinator, and schools can also act under their own conduct codes.

Outside the US

In England and Wales, non-fatal strangulation has been a specific crime since June 2022, with a maximum of five years in prison. Consent is a defense unless the person is seriously harmed and the strangler intended or risked that harm, and a separate 2021 law states that consent to serious harm for sexual gratification is not a defense.

A 2026 law making it a crime to possess or publish pornography showing strangulation passed in April 2026 and had not yet taken effect as of October 2026.

In Scotland, the appeal court restated in 2026 that strangulation is a crime whether or not the person agreed. Australian states differ: some include lack of consent in their strangulation offenses. Victoria’s offenses apply between family members, including partners; consent is no defense to its more serious offense, and for its lesser offense during sex, consent counts only under strict affirmative-consent rules.

What it means

Agreeing to it doesn’t make it safe, and it may not make it legal. Laws differ between states and countries, and they change. If this happened to you, a victim advocate or lawyer can help explain your options.