1, the protected objects are different. Self-defense is to defend national interests, public interests and the legitimate rights and interests of oneself or others. And self-help behavior is generally a kind of self-protection behavior.
2. Different implementation time. The former usually begins but doesn't end. The occurrence of self-help behavior is not necessarily consistent with the attack behavior, but it may occur after the attack behavior is completed.
3. Self-defense requires stricter boundaries than self-help behavior.
4. Legal basis: Article 20 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that in order to protect the personal, property and other rights of the state, the public, oneself or others from ongoing unlawful infringement, it belongs to self-defense and bears no criminal responsibility. If justifiable defense obviously exceeds the necessary limit and causes great damage, criminal responsibility shall be borne, but the punishment shall be mitigated or exempted. Taking defensive actions against violent crimes such as assault, murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, etc., which seriously endanger personal safety, and causing casualties to illegal infringers, is not excessive defense and does not bear criminal responsibility.
Second, what is justifiable defense?
Only with the following five elements can it constitute self-defense:
1. Causal condition: illegal violation of reality.
The reason of self-defense must be the objective illegal infringement. "Illegal" means not allowed by laws and regulations, provided that the infringement constitutes a crime. It is generally believed that self-defense can be implemented against the aggression of mental patients. However, not all criminal acts can be justified, such as corruption, dereliction of duty and other crimes that are not urgent and aggressive, and the self-defense system is generally not applicable.
2. Time condition: illegal infringement is going on.
Only when the illegal infringement is going on can it pose a threat and urgency to the legitimate rights and interests, and the defense behavior can be justified. Generally speaking, the start time of illegal infringement begins when the illegal infringer begins to commit the infringement, but when the actual threat of illegal infringement is obvious and urgent, and it will cause irreparable damage after implementation, it can be considered that the infringement has begun. The end time of illegal infringement-when the legitimate rights and interests are no longer threatened by urgent and realistic infringement, illegal infringement is considered to be over. Specifically, the actor was subdued, lost the ability to infringe, took the initiative to stop the infringement and fled the scene, which could not cause harmful results and could not continue to cause more serious consequences. In property crimes, even if the infringement has been completed, if the loss can be recovered in time, it can be considered that the illegal infringement is not over yet.
3. Subjective conditions: defensive awareness.
Justifiable defense requires the defender to have defense consciousness and defense will. The former means that the defender realizes that illegal infringement is going on; The latter refers to the motivation of defenders to protect legitimate rights and interests.
4. Object condition: Defend the infringer.
Self-defense can only be directed at the infringer himself. Because the infringement is caused by the infringer himself, only by defending himself can the legitimate rights and interests be protected. Even if it is a joint crime, it can only defend the person who is committing illegal infringement, but not the accomplice who has not committed infringement. If you defend a third person, it may constitute intentional crime or imaginary defense or emergency avoidance. It can also be carried out on the object brought by the infringer to help him hurt.
5. Limit conditions: the necessary limit is not obviously exceeded.
In fact, the identification of self-defense is not easy, because a little psychological difference will lead to different behavior identification. Therefore, if a criminal case is involved and you are accused of excessive defense, you'd better turn to a professional criminal defense lawyer to help you correctly identify justifiable defense and safeguard your legitimate rights and interests.