Under the skin

When completed, Scotia Mullin’s PhD research will provide authorities with detailed guidance to help identify whether strangulation is a factor in the cause of death or mechanism of injury. It might also help dentists recognise signs of trauma from strangulation as part of everyday practice.

With a background in biological and forensic anthropology and public health, Scotia has analysed around 400 cases of death by strangulation in Australia. About half of those cases involved inter-personal violence, with members of the LGBTQ community over-represented in the case numbers.

However, Scotia believes more deaths or assaults in Australia involving strangulation may be going undetected because investigators lack knowledge about the intricate and subtle changes that occur to a victim’s skin, muscle and bone.

“Whether a person is strangled by an intimate partner, commits suicide by hanging or dies through auto-erotic asphyxia, the skeletal injuries and soft tissue injuries look very different. In the future, this research could assist investigators in determining cause or manner of death,” says Scotia.

“Strangulation also causes quite a significant amount of injury to the internal structures of the mouth and neck that could be identified by dentists. So, in the future, dentists could be educated on how to identify signs of intimate partner violence that involve strangulation in their patients,” he says.

With his PhD supervisor, Associate Professor Rita Hardiman (BSc Hons 1998, PhD 2010, GCertUniTeach 2018), Scotia is already sharing some of his research insights during a lecture he presents to first-year Doctor of Dental Surgery students at Melbourne Dental School.

When they become dentists, they will be able to incorporate sexual health questions into their standard practice, understand their role as a dentist in identifying any possible signs of strangulation, and know how to talk about this with a patient says Scotia.

Scotia’s career and research have taken him from Australia to the US, where he studied at the University of Wyoming and did an internship in the coroner’s office in Wyoming.

He then returned to Australia to complete a Master of Public Health before embarking on his PhD. He has also worked as a cultural heritage auditor for the University of Melbourne, identifying Indigenous remains within the university’s anatomical collections.

Scotia’s focus is currently on completing his PhD, which will also incorporate the experiences of men who have sex with men who survive strangulation and the barriers that prevent them seeking help after such an experience.

“Strangulation is a significant predictor of homicide in intimate partner violence. So, if you are strangled by your partner, you are more likely to become a homicide victim. It is a huge issue and we need to do more about it,” Scotia says.

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