Justifiable Homicide
Running Head: Justifiable Homicide
Justifiable Homicide in Criminal Justice
Student 3
Minnesota State University Mankato
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Justifiable Homicide
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Abstract
In the article, “Justifiable Homicide by Police Officers,” Gerald D. Robin states that innocent
homicide is defined as either 1) a justifiable homicide commanded or authorized by law; or an
excusable homicide, which is in self-defense or unintentional or 2) a justifiable homicide which
in context with common law terms is a reference to the killing of an offender by a police officer
or another agent of the law . In his study on justifiable homicide, published in 1963 Gerald
Robin focused on the statistical aspect and impact of police shootings rather than looking at
social reasons or possible deterrents or solutions. Justifiable homicide in criminal justice is
unique in the sense that the perpetrator is both an offender and a victim as their death is a
result of their unlawful behavior. As Robin states “There can be little doubt that for the V-O’s
(victim-offenders)…crime doesn’t pay” (1963). In his article Robin uses information gathered
from 1950 through 1960 in Philadelphia on justifiable homicide by police officers as well as data
pulled from the National Office of Vital Statistics reports on the numbers of criminals killed by
police officers, and information gathered from eight other cities during the same time period.
To better understand justifiable homicide you must first look at the use of deadly force and
when it is acceptable.
Siegel & Senna (2008) found that the use of deadly force is derived from common law where
many offenses were felonies and therefore punishable by death, the use of deadly force was
acceptable when apprehending a felon in those days because their death would save the state
the trouble and time of a trial. Today deadly force is still justifiable when attempting to
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apprehend a felon if that is your only means of stopping them, or if an offender becomes
assaultive in a manner likely to cause bodily harm or death of the officer (Siegel & Senna, 2008).
An officer cannot use deadly force on a fleeing suspect if they only have suspicion that they
committed a felony, to use justifiable deadly force they must either know they suspect is a
wanted felon or have witnessed them commit a felony. Robin (1963) found that in certain
states courts have ruled that deadly force can be used while arresting a misdemeanor offender
only if they become assaultive, otherwise non-lethal force must be used.
Police violence and shootings have made headline news for decades now, but the perception
that it is wide-spread is based on fiction and news blown out of proportion. Robin’s article
found that during the 1950’s the number of justifiable police homicides (JPH’s) nationwide
never exceeded 282 well staying in the 226 and 282 range (Robin, 1963). Even today the
numbers are between 250 and 300 annually (Siegel & Senna, 2008) although some researchers
believe these numbers are low due to misreporting or coroner mistakes. Although these
numbers may appear high they must be taken in perspective to overall population, according to
statistics the ratio of JPH’s in the nine cities responding to the survey they varied from only as
high as 7.06 in Miami to as low as .4 per one million citizens in Boston during the 1950-1960
timeframe (Robin, 1963). In the Philadelphia study a closer look was taken at who the V-O’s
were and why they became victims of justifiable police homicide.
Racial profiling has been a problem in the criminal justice system for years, when it comes to
JPH”s it’s no different story. Robin (1963) has found that in Philadelphia the ratio of African-
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Americans killed compared to whites in JPH cases was 21.9 to 1 in the 1950’s, among the other
eight cities surveyed the ratio was as high as 29.5 to 1 in Milwaukee. Sociologist Paul Takagi
said that when it comes to police officers they have “one trigger finger for whites and another
for African Americans “(Siegel & Senna, 2008). Researcher James Fyfe had a different outlook
on race and JPH’s; he found during a five-year study of JPH’s in New York City that AfricanAmerican officers were almost twice as likely to shoot a citizen as white officers were ( Siegel &
Senna, 2008). Fyfe attributes this to the fact that many African- Americans live and work in
high-crime areas thus leaving them more open to violence. The study conducted in Philadelphia
also looked at past criminal records of V-O’s and what crimes they were committing at the time
of their deaths. Twenty-four of the thirty-two V-O’s were in the process of committing a Part 1
offense at the time well the remaining eight became violent leading to their deaths even
though they only committed misdemeanor offenses(Robin, 1963). In addition twenty-five
resisted arrest, while the remaining seven fled; a vast majority had multiple previous arrests for
crimes against people as well (Robin, 1963). Another trait of V-O’s is their mental health at the
time of their death, from 1988-1998 almost one in ten V-O’s in Los Angeles were suicidal and
provoked officers into shooting them (Siegel & Senna, 2008). Although research has shown that
police officers in the line of duty are not at an extreme risk of injury or death, in fact only 33 in
100,000 dies on the job every year (Robin, 1963) including deaths in traffic accidents, but when
coupled with workload of the officer, environment and actions of the offender it is almost
always “clear that criminals killed by police are….responsible for their own death “Robin (1963).
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Senna, Joseph J., & Larry J. Siegel.
Study Guide for Siegel/Senna's Introduction to Criminal Justice, 11th
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2007.
Robin, Gerald D.
Justifiable Homicide by Police Officers, in The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police
Science (Volume 52, Number 2, 1963)
Northwest University