Criminal Charges / Crimes

In general, the laws of self-defense are complicated. There is generally not a way to be sure that someone’s actions are viewed as self-defense and not a criminal act. Unfortunately, I cannot give advice on whether your coworker’s actions would legally be considered self-defense or not. In many states, the actions taken in self-defense have to be in proportion to the proposed threat. Often the situation is evaluated to see if the person could have walked away or done something else to get out of the situation instead of using violence in self-defense.

However, when a victim of abuse reports to the police, the police will generally look at all the evidence when investigating. This could include evidence of past events of abuse, the relative size and demeanor of the two people, and the injuries both people sustained.

I also want to mention that when a police officer comes to a scene where there has been domestic violence, the state may have a law called the “primary aggressor law.” This means that the officer is supposed to evaluate the situation, see if there appear to be injuries on both parties, and decide who is the primary aggressor - and only arrest that person. [I found [information about STATE’s primary aggressor rule] OR [I did not find information about a primary aggressor rule in your state, but that does not mean there is not such a law. You may want to speak with a lawyer in your area about this.

In other situations, it may be possible that both parties are arrested. Even if a state does have a primary aggressor law that police are supposed to follow, it isn’t foolproof. Many officers will be able to successfully make this evaluation and arrest the person who has perpetrated the violence but other officers may not be able to distinguish this as well and there can be a possibility that an officer may end up arresting both parties or just the primary victim of domestic violence. Sometimes criminal charges are later dropped but it’s hard to predict what would happen.