Killing in self-defense is rare in this country, and I doubt the statistics are available which would separate the instances of LEO vs. civilian. As a percentage of total homicides, I doubt it would be statistically significant.
As to killing "by accident," and having it classified *initially* as homicide and then "down graded" as you imply could be the case, I doubt that is a statistically significant amount either. Rather, the inverse is true: Deaths by "accident" are normally reported as accidents, and then -- after a great deal of investigation and court cases -- changed to criminal offenses; that number is likely statistically more significant. HOWEVER, what is *most* significant is the fact that you cannot rely to any degree of certainty on statistics maintained at either the national or the state level when it comes to crimes, crimes of violence, accidental deaths, or even suicides. Even ten years ago the majority of this stuff simply was not considered important enough to waste limited manhours and limited resources to keep accurate track of; the statistics maintained at the local level were generally those which constituted a "hair up his a**e" for whomever was in power at the time. Even with today's much less expensive and much faster computerized databases at the local level, there is no nationwide system or rules or "codes" for classifying crime. If there is one thing that is less reliable than Medicare statistics, it is "crime statistics." To attempt to compare this year's statistics on crime with those of ten years ago is like comparing kiwi with nectarines ... when half the people have never tasted kiwi and nearly that many don't know the difference between a nectarine and a peach. l.d. P.S. I ran into this problem with nationwide & statewide statistics when I attempted to compare the number of deaths resulting from "all aspects" of smoking to those deaths attributable to alcohol; I couldn't do it, because right now the 'bad guy' is tobacco and no one is keeping tracable figures on alcohol related deaths -- not even those on the highway! ==== On Wed, 15 Jan 2003 17:49:08 +0000 (UTC), Samuel W. Heywood wrote: >> http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm > The statistics at the above URL could be easily misinterpreted > because many homicides are not crimes. > A killing of a human committed in self defense or by accident is a > homicide, but under those circumstances the homicides are not crimes. -- Arachne V1.70;rev.3, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
