If you charge a man with Manslaughter, and he proves in court with an attorney... it is a justifiable homicide and it is ruled as such...don’t you think that changes that statistic?
Now self defense in some homicides will keep the issue out of court if it’s obvious, or a lesser offense is charged....some of that can end up a ‘plea bargain’ case that never goes to court.
It’s not a cut and dried issue. Mistakes will be made depending on how accurate or dedicated the Police/Sheriff’s Department is in correcting information.... if reported erroneously on a UCR.
NO ONE says to use court findings, however my first paragraph shows how that can change the statistic in a court case.
The article shows how the FBI says to report justified homicides in the UCR.
I suspect that most agencies follow the UCR instructions on how they fill out UCR reports.
The FBI has been reporting numbers of justified homicides at least since 1991.
This shows why the UCR numbers are only a small fraction of actual justified homicides.