Fight or Flight? Stress, Threat, and Human Behavior in Self-Defense Cases
This program combines two of the most important areas of criminal defense advocacy—fight-or-flight science and strategic self-defense case preparation—to give lawyers a powerful, research-driven framework for explaining human behavior under extreme stress. The training shows how to translate complex neurophysiology into persuasive courtroom arguments that help jurors, judges, and prosecutors understand why a client’s actions were reasonable, instinctive, or misinterpreted. By mastering these concepts, defense attorneys gain a direct advantage in cases involving self-defense, use of force, aggressive police encounters, split-second decisions, and situations where behavior may initially seem inconsistent or incriminating.
The program breaks down the Human Alarm Reaction Pattern (HARP)—the fight-or-flight response—into clear, trial-ready explanations that lawyers can use in voir dire, opening statements, cross-examination, expert testimony, and closing argument. It demonstrates how stress, fear, ambiguity, and sudden threats impair perception, compress reaction time, narrow attention, and limit cognitive processing. Understanding this allows defense lawyers to show jurors why clients acted instinctively, why they perceived danger, and why their reactions were involuntary rather than intentional. These tools make it far easier to counter prosecution arguments such as “he had time to think,” “she overreacted,” or “a reasonable person wouldn’t have done that.”
Building on these principles, the program teaches how to prepare a self-defense case from the ground up, including identifying the real aggressor, reframing the roles of each party, and building a fact-driven narrative that shifts juror instincts toward protection rather than blame. Lawyers learn how to conduct witness preparation, reconstruct scenes, challenge police interpretations, identify perceptual distortions, and expose investigative shortcuts that ignore the reality of human physiology. These skills translate directly into stronger motions practice, more targeted cross-examinations, and more compelling closing arguments that anchor jurors to a defense-focused understanding of events.
Program Highlights:
- Learn how high-stress, threat-perception, and alarm responses shape human behavior, memory, decision-making, and physical actions during violent encounters.
- Use the “Human Alarm Reaction Pattern (HARP)” (fight/flight physiology) to counter claims that your client acted impulsively, aggressively, or without justification.
- Build stronger cross-exams of police officers, eyewitnesses, complaining witnesses, and experts by exposing the limits of perception under high arousal and ambiguity.
- Demonstrate why a reasonable person in your client’s position would suffer cognitive shutdown, narrowed attention, and instinctive survival reactions.
- Obtain ready-to-use frameworks for explaining behavioral science to judges during motions and evidentiary hearings to support admissibility arguments.
- Improve juror understanding of stress-driven behavior so they evaluate your client based on the moment’s physiological reality—not calm, retrospective analysis.
Throughout the training, attorneys receive practical techniques, sample argument structures, explanatory analogies, and courtroom-ready language they can use immediately. The combined material provides a complete persuasion toolkit that helps jurors understand what happened in a way that feels natural, intuitive, and scientifically grounded. By the end, viewers are equipped to demonstrate that their client’s actions were consistent with instinctive human survival behavior—not criminal intent—making this program a critical resource for improving case outcomes and elevating the persuasiveness of any self-defense or high-stress behavioral defense.
Presentations Included:
- The Misconceptions of HARP (The Human Alarm Reaction Pattern): The Psychology and Physiology of Fight or Flight Syndrome | Dr. Scott Fraser
- Putting the Right Person on Trial - Prepping for Self-Defense | Tony Thedford
Prices
- List Price $69.00
- Member Price $59.00