There are NO absolutes. You cannot say that cartridge X will do this everytime, and cartridge Y will not.
A trooper in the northeast part of the country died when he was shot by a guy who took six full-house .357 158gr JHPs center mass from three feet away. The guy was a huge fat slob, and while the initial impacts stunned and knocked him down, they didn't penetrate enough, and he was able to shoot from the ground, catching the trooper just under his vest.
An LSP trooper put five Remington 110gr .357 JHPs into a juiced-up crackhead (you could cover the group with your hand), and still had to fight him before the guy bled out. We went to a minimum 125gr bullet weight after THAT one.
While there are no absolutes, there ARE some generalities. Heavier is better, given reasonably similar velocites.
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Steve, if I'm thinking of the same one, that's the Trooper Steve Coates shooting in South Carolina. We watched the dashcam video during patrol week, along with an interview with his killer. Coates was using a 4" 686 loaded with +P .38s, weight unspecified. The killer had an NAA .22 that entered Coates' armpit when he reached for his shoulder mic.