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Proactive Self-Defense Judgment and Perception

Self-defense laws in most U.S. states require the defender to prove that both their appraisal of the danger and her act to intercede were reasonable – also known as the Reasonable Person Standard.

However, little research has examined a) what reasonableness means to lay individuals, b) what factors affect jurors’ perceptions of such reasonableness, and c) how the judgment of reasonableness affects juror decision-making.

Overview:

Research question:

What factors influence people’s judgment and perception of their own and other people’s act of self-defense?

Research approach:

Experiments were designed via Qualtrics and data collected via Prolific (total N = 1000). Studies included situational vignettes and questions that measured attitude and intended reactions. For the first-person study, participants read threat scenarios and were asked about their assessment of danger and whether or not they would engage in self-defense. For the jury decision-making study, participants read a case brief where the defendant is charged with assault but invokes the self-defense defense; participants were asked about their attitudes toward the defendant and whether they vote guilty or not-guilty.

Survey links (copies):

Proactive self-defense judgment and perception – first-person
Data collected in 2019, N = 250

Proactive self-defense judgment and perception - jury decision-making
Data collected in 2019, N = 750

Analysis plan:

Binary Logistics Regression (BLR) in SPSS, using individual differences and the manipulated variables as predictors to examine which factors affect participants’ perception/decision-making over and above the others.

Key findings:

When judging for themselves, participants were more likely to engage in the act of self-defense when:
- participants are female;
- the would-be attacker is presented as more threatening, especially in a high-crime neighborhood

When judging others, participants were more forgiving of other people’s act of self-defense when:
- participants are female;
- the victim (would-be attacker) brandished a weapon;
- participants are instructed to take the perspective of the defender

Conference presentations:

What would I do? Factors that influence judgment of one’s own and others’ proactive self-defense – An exploratory study (PDF)
American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference
Presented March 2020

Perception of threat and intent to act in self-defense
American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference
Presented March 2020

Juror Perspective-Taking and the Self-Defense Defense: Examining the Reasonable Person Standard
Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference
Presented February 2022

Perceptions of Threat and Self Defense Decision-Making
Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference
Presenting February 2022

Publications:

Estimating the Perceived Threat Threshold for Acting in Self-Defense
Law, Probability and Risk (2024)

Walking a Mile in the Defendant’s Shoes: Perspective Taking, the Reasonable Person Standard, and the Self-Defense Defense
Manuscript submitted, pending review

Supplemental Materials

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