More states are starting to make it a felony to choke someone because experts say that victims who suffer these kinds of attacks will eventually get killed by their abusers, USA Today reports. The hope is that -- by punishing choking attacks more seriously -- they can prevents more murders.
A 2008 study in the Journal of Emergency Medicine found 43% of women who were murdered in domestic assaults and 45% who were victims of attempted murder had been choked in the past year by their male partners.
