Back استفزاز (قانون) Arabic Uitlokking (strafverminderingsgrond) Dutch Provokimi (ligj) Albanian Haksız tahrik Turkish 激怒 (法律) Chinese
| Criminal defenses |
|---|
| Part of the common law series |
|
| Other common law areas |
| Portals |
&sq=Albert Einstein&lang=en&file=File:Balance,_by_David.svg){kind=small}
In law, provocation is when a person is considered to have committed a criminal act partly because of a preceding set of events that might cause a reasonable individual to lose self control. This makes them less morally culpable than if the act was premeditated (pre-planned) and done out of pure malice (malice aforethought).[1][2] It "affects the quality of the actor's state of mind as an indicator of moral blameworthiness."[1]
Provocation is often a mitigating factor in sentencing. It rarely serves as a legal defense, meaning it does not stop the defendant from being guilty of the crime. It may however, lead to a lesser punishment. In some common law legal systems, provocation is a "partial defense" for murder charges, which can result in the offense being classified as the lesser offense of manslaughter, specifically voluntary manslaughter.[3]
Provocation is distinct from self-defense in that self-defense is a legal defense, and refers to a justifiable action to exclusively protect oneself from imminent violence.