Basic Trope: Someone who was acting in self-defense finds themself in the hot seat.
- Straight: Alice is walking to her car and is attacked by Bob. Alice fights him off, but she is charged with "aggravated assault."
- Exaggerated:
- For his part, Bob gets off scot-free.
- Alice gets charged with "attempted murder in the first degree" for trying to fight off Bob.
- Bob pulls a knife on Alice, and she doesn't try to fight back. She just runs. She's still charged with "aggravated assault" for being involved in the situation.
- Alice doesn't even fight Bob, only trying to escape, but gets sentenced to death.
- Downplayed:
- Alice gets a fine for "violating the order in a public place".
- After Alice is wrongly accused of an unrelated crime, her incident with Bob is used to establish a pattern of violence.
- Justified:
- Alice used excessive force for the situation (for example, Bob was unarmed, and she used a knife... or a gun... or a chainsaw).
- Alice kept making extremely personal insults and wouldn't stop daring Bob to attack her, and he eventually obliged her and she is now trying to use that as justification for seriously injuring him.
- It was determined that in that particular instance, Alice could have easily gotten away.
- There's a Dirty Cop and/or Hanging Judge secretly in league with Bob.
- Alice is part of a repressed ethnic group. No matter what, she's screwed.
- The authorities are specifically gunning for Alice and are using this opportunity to deal with her.
- Bob was a police officer attempting to arrest Alice.
- The police assumes that Alice set up Bob to be in a situation that seems to require self-defense to justify trying to kill him. Depending on the Writer, it may or may not be true.
- Inverted:
- Alice is treated as a heroine for fighting Bob, probably bringing a lot of issues of its own.
- Bob Unishment gets off with a slap on the wrist for attempting to rape Alice in the parking garage.
- Subverted:
- Alice doesn't seem to be getting in trouble for her role in the altercation.
- Alice is pinned to the ground and though she struggled, never actually hit Bob.
- Alice pulls out a knife she carries for protection; Bob flees the scene.
- Double Subverted:
- But then Alice finds that Bob died from whatever injuries she inflicted on him and she is charged with manslaughter.
- Alice gets a civil suit for "pain and suffering" or other damages.
- Then Bob uses the Wounded Gazelle Gambit to try to make her look like The Bad Guy.
- Other people record the event and Alice comes across as the actual "violent criminal" of the situation, putting her role as an "innocent victim" into (an unfair) question.
- Parodied: Bob accused Alice of assaulting him, but the footage showed him tripping as he tried to rob Alice.
- Zig Zagged: Selective Enforcement
- Averted:
- Alice did not fight Bob; she ran away instead.
- Alice couldn't fight Bob even if she wanted to in that instance.
- Alice is never charged for anything.
- Enforced: Rule of Drama
- Lampshaded:Alice (with one of her hands pinned behind her back by a cop): "It was self-defense! Officer, I swear..."
- Invoked: Bob attacks Alice in a poorly-lit parking garage late one night. Alice is afraid for her life and safety, and she assumes Bob is armed and dangerous.
- Exploited: Wounded Gazelle Gambit
- Defied:
- Alice doesn't want to get into a fight with Bob and risk being accused of starting it in the first place, so she runs away.
- A Reasonable Authority Figure takes one look at the case and tells the prosecutor that he's wasting his time - it's clear self-defense, and attempting to press charges borders on harassment.
- Discussed: "You're under arrest for aggravated assault." "But it was self-defense!"
- Conversed: "So you can get in trouble for trying to fend off a mugger, like that gal from last week's episode? Damn, something's wrong with this world."
- Implied: Alice was protesting over her charge of assaulting Bob, insisting that he was the one attacking her first.
- Deconstructed:
- People start becoming wise to the fact that leaving their attackers alive will lead to legal trouble in future and make sure to finish them off.
- People start becoming wise to the fact that fighting back only gets them in trouble and refuse to defend themselves, and violent crime goes way up since criminals know they can get away with it.
- People start becoming wise to the fact that the authorities will punish them for defending themselves — so they start a rebellion.
- Reconstructed: Enough people realize that this kind of 'justice' is rather unjust to force social change. The Mayor is voted out of office, the New Mayor fires and replaces the judge and the chief of police, enacts legal reforms, and gives Alice a pardon as well as an official apology from the city government.
- Played For Drama: Alice's personal relationships are damaged by the allegations, and she deeply fears being jailed for something that wasn't her fault.
Back to Crime of Self-Defense
