Strangulation

Strangulation



Strangulation causes asphyxia by means of pressure on the neck from a
ligature or from someone's hands. The weight of the victim's body plays
no part, which is what distinguishes strangulation from hanging. Since
manual self-strangulation is unknown and probably impossible (your
hands relax when you become unconscious), all cases of manual
strangulation are considered homicides. I suppose this also makes
manual self-strangulation the perfectly safe suicidal gesture, but, by
the same token, it would not likely be taken seriously.



Pressure on the neck can close the airway (trachea, or windpipe) at the
front of the neck, or compress the common carotid (both sides of neck)
and vertebral (back of neck) arteries or jugular veins (both sides), or
some combination of the above.(344f) The jugular veins are easiest to
compress, followed by carotid and vertebral arteries, followed by the
trachea. (See 'Hanging' chapter for details.) Much more pressure is
needed to close the airway than to close the blood vessels in the neck,
and is unnecessarily painful. It is entirely feasible to protect the
airway with stiff padding, and still kill oneself by tightening a
ligature around the neck, thus shutting off blood flow to or from the
brain.



Because they operate at higher pressure, the carotid arteries (blood
into the head) require more external pressure to compress than do the
jugular veins (blood out). A tight, quickly-applied ligature would
squeeze both shut, leaving a body with a dusky, blue-tinged (from
de-oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood) face.



Lesser pressure, compressing the major veins but not the arteries,
would allow blood into, but not out of, the head. This would result in
a swollen, blue-purple head, often leaking blood. It may also be
painful, albeit briefly. If aesthetics are an issue, quick and complete
compression of the blood vessels is least likely to leave a gruesome
corpse.



Suicidal strangulation is uncommon, but certainly not unknown. It is
generally done by one of three means: (1) knotting a rope or piece of
cloth around the neck in such a fashion that it will not come undone
when consciousness is lost; (2) twisting a stick or rod under the
ligature so that it tightens, and then stays caught under the jaw or
chin after unconsciousness; (3) wrapping multiple turns of cord around
the neck without any knot at all, depending on friction to hold it in
place.



Pressure on the windpipe is painful, but even lethal pressure elsewhere
on the neck may produce little or no distress; thus, if the front of
the neck is well padded, none of the following techniques ought to be
particularly painful. But all are potentially deadly.



Method one is straightforward: a ligature is wrapped once or twice
around the neck and quickly knotted. This often looks similar to a
homicidal strangulation, but can usually be distinguished from it by
the absence of scratches on the neck (produced either by the attacker
or the victim) and of internal neck injuries