Justifiable homicide is not a crime. It is defined by the National Incident-Based Reporting System and
the FBI as “the lawful killing of a perpetrator of a serious criminal offense by a law enforcement
officer in the line of duty [or] by a private individual.” Because justifiable homicides involve the willful
and lawful taking of human life, they are tracked by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program in
order to identify trends in where, when, and under what circumstances they occur.