Violence against transgender individuals in general, and trans women of color in particular, is a significant problem in the United States today. When a man is charged with murdering a transgender woman, a common defense strategy is to assert what is called the trans panic defense. The trans panic defense is not a tra-ditional criminal law defense. Nor, despite its name, is it recognized as a stand- alone defense. Rather, trans panic is a defense strategy associated with the prov-ocation or heat of passion defense. A murder defendant asserting trans panic will claim that the discovery that the victim was a transgender female—an individual who identifies as a woman but was thought to be male when born—provoked him into a heat of passion, causing him to lose his self-control. If the jury finds that the defendant was actually provoked into a heat of passion and that the ordinary man in the defendant’s shoes would have been so provoked, it can acquit him of murder and find him guilty of a lesser offense.

中文翻译：

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重新审视跨性别恐慌防御

暴力侵害一般跨性别者，尤其是有色人种跨性别女性，是当今美国的一个重大问题。当一个男人被指控谋杀一名跨性别女人时，一种常见的辩护策略是坚持所谓的跨性别恐慌辩护。跨性别恐慌辩护不是传统的刑法辩护。尽管有它的名字，它也没有被认为是一种独立的防御。相反，跨性恐慌是一种与激情防御的挑衅或热度相关的防御策略。声称跨性别恐慌的谋杀被告会声称，发现受害者是一名跨性别女性——一个自称是女性但出生时被认为是男性的人——激起了他的激情，使他失去了自我——控制。