Victimology Fall 2021 Activity 5 Comparison of Two Different Self Defense Shootings 16 pts. total For this activity, I would like for you to compare two of the most recent national criminal verdicts where the offenders used self-defense as their legal defense of lethal force. Both cases have similarities and differences to one another, and both had very different outcomes. The cases are the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse and the guilty verdicts of the Brunswick 3 who killed Ahmaud Arbery. I want you to use real courtroom videos, not news stations summaries, for your background information. You are all upper division students, so I will not pick the videos you use for the assignment, but I would NOT use a cable network as your source. ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, and/or PBS are probably the most neutral news sources. There are NO right or wrong arguments only SUPPORTED and UNSUPPORTED arguments. This is an easy assignment, but assignments that are truly above and beyond will earn extra credit points AND be an excellent writing sample for graduate or law school applications. A. Background 1) First, find a video of opening or closing statements from both trials and watch them. These are usually the best summaries and give you the gist of how each defendant(s) will justify the use of deadly force. In most cases, you only need to watch about 15-20 minutes of the videos. After watching the videos, provide me with 1-2 paragraphs, per trial, of the defenses narratives of what happened. Simply cut and paste the URLs of the videos. 2) Provide basic demographics for the defendant(s) in both trials. 3) Provide basic demographics for the victim(s) in both trials. 4) Define what self-defense is. B. Verdicts 1) In a paragraph for each, summarize the verdicts for each trial. 2) In a paragraph for each, tell me if you feel the verdicts were appropriate. C. Analysis Using Course Materials 1) Using course material, support your argument in B2. Keep your support short. Pick one or two suggestions, no more. These are a few suggestions of material that could be used to support an argument: routine activities theory, victim precipitation, conflict theory, victim blaming, victim defending, victims in the media, burglaries, system blaming, victim facilitation, second class treatment, race, gender, etc D. Discussion 1) In 2-3 paragraphs total, explain why you think these two self-defense trials ended very differently. This should be your opinion. This assignment should be research based, except for the opinion part in D. The entire assignment should be roughly pages, single spaced. References can just be minimized to anything used from outside of class.Show more
