For reference re: justifiable homicide
Posted by David Hardy · 29 August 2014 11:45 AM
In the dispute over how many self-defense cases occur, one data point
often cited by those seeking to minimize the number is the FBI Uniform
Crime Report's count of justifiable homicides (a legal category that
includes self-defense). This is usually in the range of 900 a year,
including several hundred by police. While that doesn't count
self-defense that doesn't result in the perp's death, it is argued that
it is inconsistent with hundreds of thousands or millions of defensive
uses annually.
What's not realized is that the FBI count is artificially defined in a
way that far undercounts defensive uses. The usual definition of
self-defense with a deadly weapon is use of force immediately necessary
in light of a reasonable belief that the perp is likely to inflict death
or serious bodily injury.
But the FBI UCR Reporting Handbook
at pp. 17-18 uses a completely different definition. Reporting
officials are instructed, in the case of use of force by a non-LEO, to
include under justifiable homicide only killings "The killing of a
felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen."
The illustration given (do NOT list as justifiable a situation where a
citizen shoots a fellow attacking him, in a crime of passion, with a
broken bottle -- the author must have watched too many 1950s movies
about street fights) makes it apparent that the assault itself does not
count as "commission of a felony."
1 comment:
Hi- I would like to request prayers for the victims of rape and abuse by members of the Catholic Church. Many of them were children when they were attacked or abused. This is also an ongoing crisis, with new victims each year, worldwide. I will remember them and their stories forever, but for the healing to truly take place, it will take the voices and efforts of many. To paraphrase a poem by an Indian schoolgirl, "Too many Catholics, in too many countries, speak the same language-- of silence." Thank you.
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