History Main / CrimeOfSelfDefense

* ''Literature/FishInATree'': Albert is regularly beaten up by [[KidsAreCruel a group of kids]], but refuses to fight back. One reason being that, since he's bigger than them, he's afraid that people will think that HE'S bullying THEM. [[spoiler:When they start beating up his friends, however, he drops this ideology and finally stands up to them.]]

* ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'': During one of the several occasions where [=Doña=] Florinda decides to slap Don [=Ramón=] for something she thinks he did to her son, he manages to defend himself by placing a bucket on his head. Professor Jirafales is so outraged about Doña Florinda hurting her hand from smacking the bucket that he punches Don [=Ramón=] for it.

* Notably PlayedWith in the ending of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''. Although it's true you can only get the absolute best ending in the game by killing ''no one'' (even the ones you were legitimately defending your life against), you don't get judged very harshly in neutral endings where you took some lives: it's actually acknowledged InUniverse that you were defending yourself, and the real guilt-tripping only begins when circumstances make it clear that you're going out of your way to start fights to kill monsters instead of just walking through dangerous areas and defending yourself from random encounters (and the game is coded to make it basically impossible get a really high kill count without actively grinding for it as an AntiFrustrationFeature so you ''don't'' get guilt tripped for playing the game normally). The only one who starts condemning you at a single kill is Undyne (who's somewhat biased against humans to begin with), and if your only kill is Asgore even she begrudgingly admits that you probably had no other choice (Asgore actually [[InterfaceScrew destroys the Mercy button]] during your fight, so you do have to attack him). The only single monsters you really get guilt-tripped for killing are Toriel and Papyrus, who legitimately are not trying to kill you (Toriel's attacks will actively avoid you if you're at low health, and losing to Papyrus just means he puts you in a CardboardPrison. Not to mention, the one doing the guilt-tripping is Toriel's friend and Papyrus's ''brother'' so he's pretty understandably biased). [[spoiler:In the true pacifist ending you're essentially hailed as TheParagon and ultimate hero of the underground who utterly refused to take a life under any circumstance, even by the [[BigBad Flowey The Flower]], and even ''then'' you need to intently fight Asriel until he simply loses the will to fight.]]

Compare ArrestedForHeroism, FightingBackIsWrong, and TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw. Not to be confused with SelfOffense. See also the AllCrimesAreEqual, SlidingScaleOfUnavoidableVersusUnforgivable, InconvenientlyVanishingExoneratingEvidence and KillingInSelfDefense. May result in ThenLetMeBeEvil.

* In ''Literature/WorteniaSenki'', kidnappers can (and usually do) charge their victims with a crime ''under the law'' if the kidnapper is ... a.) a slaver kidnapping a peasant, or even a noble (if from another country) to then sell on the market. b.) A "noble" knight kidnaps the spouse and child of a commoner rival. c.) A summoned "otherworlder" is attacked with deadly force upon being summoned "as a test" and not only retaliates but actually has the gall to win the fight and then escape captivity. d.) If the kidnapper manages to drag you across a country boundary, you had best LeaveNoWitnesses because if you can get ID'd, your life's pretty much over. The protagonist was introduced fleeing Ortomea for violating "c.)"

* This is the entire conflict between the ''ComicBook/XMen'' and their nemesis, ComicBook/{{Magneto}}. The X-Men wholeheartedly believe in this ideal, as taught by their leader, Professor Xavier. Magneto, on the other hand, believes that the only way to battle oppression is to rise up and conquer humans. Various points of media will show either as being "right", DependingOnTheWriter.

* In ''Film/ConAir'', the (sympathetic) main character is put in prison for accidentally killing someone in defense of his pregnant wife because A) one of the ''three'' scumbags who was trying to assault him [[HideTheEvidence got rid of the knife]] his late buddy pulled, B) his idiot lawyer advised him to plead guilty, C) the HangingJudge on the case says that as an inactive soldier with expert combat training, he should have been more careful since his assailants were unarmed -- even though there were three of them. This one is especially bad since it relies hugely on HollywoodLaw. It's quite unlikely he'd even be prosecuted (his wife witnessed the entire thing), and he would have a very good chance at trial if they did, so it's unlikely his lawyer would advise a guilty plea. Additionally, it was shown to be a federal case despite no indication the deaths occurred in federal jurisdiction. Plus, a judge giving a defendant a harsher sentence because he's a veteran would be career suicide for the latter and an easy appeal for the former.

* ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'': During one of the several occasions where [=Doña=] Florinda decides to slap Don [=Ramón=] for something she thinks he did to her son, he manages to defend himself by placing a bucket on his head. Professor Jirafales is so outraged he punches Don [=Ramón=] for it.

* ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'': During one of the several occasions where [=Doña=] Florinda decides to slap Don [=Ramón=] for something she thinks he did to her son, he manages to defend himself by placing a bucket on his head. Professor Jirafales is so outraged he punches Don [=Ramón=] for it.

* In ''Webcomic/JupiterMen'', Arrio's checkered past as a FormerTeenRebel years ago earns him three weeks detention for defending himself when Chang picks a fight with him. By contrast, Chang is a highly popular athlete with an influential mom, so he walks away scot-free aside from getting a black eye from the earlier fight.

** ''VideoGame/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'': The third case was a case of legitimate self-defense; the victim attacked the culprit and was accidentally pushed onto a sharp fence post. The killer still felt the need to move the body to a different part of the studio to give themself an alibi.
** ''VideoGame/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'': In the second case, Francisca von Karma offers to let Maya plead justified self-defense given that the man she was accused of murdering had a gun and fired it soon before he died. Phoenix refuses because that would mean admitting that Maya did kill someone and goes for an innocent plea.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E7TheLonely The Lonely]]", James A. Corry was convicted of murder but claims that he killed in self-defense. He is eventually pardoned.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E146IAmTheNightColorMeBlack I am the Night - Color Me Black]]", Jagger killed a racist man in self-defense, which the presence of powder burns on the victim's body indicated. However, a committee of townspeople convinced Sheriff Koch to ignore this evidence. Koch did so as he wanted to be re-elected sheriff. Jagger was therefore convicted of murder and is executed on the morning of May 25, 1964.

* A nonfatal version occurs in the backstory of the Creator/TimDorsey book ''Naked Came the Florida Man.'' College football player Lamar Calhoun reflexively punched an abusive coach while trying to get free after about a minute of being strangled by the man. Calhoun was promptly arrested for battery (although he was let out of jail without serving any time in exchange for his silence), kicked off the team, and blackballed from the NFL and a career in P.E. (until he eventually lied on a job application) to cover up the coach's actions.

* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'' has this both [[DefiedTrope defied]] and referenced. During ''Literature/AMagesPower'', Eric [[spoiler:kills an orc]] in defense of Annala and the two subsequently worry about him getting in trouble for this. So much that Annala immediately collects evidence against it. Fortunately, Eric's guild has an in-house advocate who calls the incident an open-and-shut case of self-defense. [[spoiler:Two books later this happens again and lands Eric in bigger trouble.]]

** The Academy also tries to promote Lucy Diamond as a mass-murderer to push their narrative that she's a threat to the world. Thing is, most of Lucy's killings were part of her MobWar against the Schaffer crime syndicate, who not only made numerous attempts on ''her'' life, but killed most of ''her'' family. To go with the narrative, the agency almost treats the Schaffers -- vicious criminals themselves -- as if they were innocent victims of Lucy's. When Amy is confronted about it by her pushy ex-boyfriend Bobby, who tries to use Lucy's "murderous" history against their relationship. When Bobby brings up the Schaeffers, Amy is quick to point out what the Schaffer's at hand; Bobby snaps, insisting ''their'' blood is on ''Lucy's'' hands.

** To justify keeping Brigitte Fitzgerald in their custody, they would use her "delinquent" past as justification, especially over her supposed slaying of her sister, and another werewolf by the name of "J. Taylor". Never mind that Ginger was a transformed werewolf, and Brigitte stabbed her to defend herself; or that the other werewolf was a StalkerWithACrush that killed several people to get to Brigitte; the fact that Brigitte "murdered" these two is enough reason to deem her a flight risk to be kept in check.
** The Academy also tries to promote Lucy Diamond as a mass-murderer to push their narrative that she's a threat to the world. Thing is, most of Lucy's killings were part of her MobWar against the Schaffer crime syndicate, who not only made numerous attempts on ''her'' life, but killed most of ''her'' family. To go with the narrative, the agency almost treats the Schaffers - vicious criminals themselves - as if they were innocent victims of Lucy's. When Amy is confronted about it by her pushy ex-boyfriend Bobby, who tries to use Lucy's "murderous" history against their relationship. When Bobby brings up the Schaeffers, Amy is quick to point out what the Schaffer's at hand; Bobby snaps, insisting ''their'' blood is on ''Lucy's'' hands.

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'': You get the same reaction for attacking the drug-trafficking {{the Triads|AndTheTongs}} in Liberty City.
** The ''only'' break you get is that, in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'' and the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories two]] ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories Stories]]'' games, you can occasionally see a single policeman chasing a random pedestrian and get $50 bucks as a "good citizen" bonus for punching said pedestrian in the face (specifically punching them - use an actual weapon and the cop will go after you instead).
*** GTA Online is worse about it. Police are smarter in a single-player sense, in that they will go out of their way to attack ''any'' aggressor they come across, from an armed player going crazy to a pedestrian that ran over a cop trying to get away, however, they will ''always'' target any player who makes an aggressive action in their sight. This comes to a head when you're defending yourself against an aggressive player who has killed you multiple times, where the cops, who are most likely there because of your death, start attacking you because you shot back. Even worse as of "Gunrunning" with the advent of weaponized personal vehicles, as destroying a player's personal vehicle results in 'Bad Sport' points and a hefty insurance payout to the vehicle's owner. This combines to make a situation where a player being attacked by one of these missile-and-minigun-armed vehicles who does manage to destroy it loses money for destroying it, risks being labeled a griefer by the game, and probably gets the cops called on them by nearby [=NPCs=].

* ''{{Film/Foxfire}}'': Legs is imprisoned for stopping the jocks kidnapping Maddie intending to rape her, since they (and one's girlfriend) lied, saying this was an unprovoked attack by her. She's released after the girl comes clean to the judge in guilt over it.