Different scholars have researched “the castle doctrine,” a legal protection that empowers residents to use lethal force to defend themselves when attacked in their residential area. Official state castle doctrine regulations restrict the use of deadly force. Defendants in self-defense proceedings, like any other area of the law, have the burden of establishing legal justification for their conduct. It is up to the defendant to prove their innocence. State legislatures have enacted laws codifying and expanding upon this notion. These laws include the stand-your-ground law, which allows a person to use force to defend themselves without being required to retreat first when someone reasonably perceives a threat. However, while several states enforced ‘the castle doctrine’ law to allow people to protect their homes from attackers, it has also led to an increase in firearm homicides in most of the states.
This paper aims to incorporate information from different research papers to support the above argument and provide a review of different enacted legislation laws and other laws related to the topic. From the research, the castle doctrine law and associated laws have increased homicides in most states where the law has been enacted. Therefore, the study reviewed the castle doctrine law as insufficient, and the government should implement the duty to retreat law, which is figured to be more sufficient to control homicide.
In the United States of America, the use of deadly force for self-defense has been prohibited by law since the colonial period. A person has a “Duty to retreat” from danger before using power. When using force is necessary for self-defense, the defender must show that all reasonable efforts were made to avoid using force. The “castle doctrine” exempts this rule by protecting people who feel threatened in their homes from prosecution for using deadly force to defend themselves. According to McClellan and Tekin (2017), many states in the United States have passed legislation legalizing the use of deadly force in self-defense since 2005; for instance, Texas, Arizona, and Florida.
Some have argued that stand-your-ground laws can help reduce violent crime by giving victims the right to defend themselves and discouraging criminal behavior (Knowles, 2022). According to Knowles (2022), no state witnessed a decrease in homicide rates after enacting them, and monthly homicide and firearm homicide rates increased “abruptly and sustainedly” nationwide after their passage. For instance, Florida’s monthly homicide rate has increased by 24.4% since October 2005, when the Stand Your Ground law went into effect, and the monthly homicide rate caused by firearms has increased by 31.6% (Humphreys et al., 2017). These rises seem to be happening despite a nationwide drop in murder rates since the 1990s. When Florida is compared to the states that have not enacted this law, for instance, Nevada, Texas, and New York, states do not pose an increase in homicide or firearm suicide.
Critics argue that increasing the permissibility of lethal force poses a risk to public health and safety by legitimizing the use of force and vigilante justice, which in turn is likely to increase existing social inequalities in these areas (Yakubovich et al., 2021). These laws allow people to own firearms for protection, which consequently leads to an increase in homicide. There was a seven percent spike in regions in states with “the castle doctrine” legislation involving the use of firearms in murders (Crifasi et al., 2018). States with right-to-carry regulations and high rates of gun ownership also tend to have “the castle doctrine” legislation. In settings where many people are already carrying guns, removing the obligation to retreat seems to make things worse for everyone.
Moreover, the “stand your ground” laws have been enacted and adopted by various states in the United States. The law correlates with the law of castle doctrine since they share the same principle of using lethal force for defense when a person is attacked in their home. However, the two laws differ in that the castle doctrine affirms that once one leaves the safety of one’s home, they have the responsibility to retreat, if possible, before resorting to reasonable force (Graham, 2021). In contrast, the “stand-your-ground” law eliminates the retreat responsibility even when one is outside the residential area.
There is much dispute over the possible impact of Stand Your Ground laws on public health, even though these laws have been adopted in 23 states. Proponents of these laws argue that the greater risk of retaliatory violence deters would-be burglars, resulting in fewer intruders (Humphreys et al., 2017). Humphreys et al. (2017) argue that embracing the stand-your-ground law and reducing the penalties for violence could make things more violent between people. They also point out that threats driven by racial prejudices can lead to needless deaths, worsening the problem.
Another related law is the duty to retreat, which opposes the law of the castle doctrine and stands your ground. The duty to retreat is a legal principle that holds that an aggrieved party may not use force against another in self-defense if the victim may flee to safety without risking further injury (Drury, 2022). Some states have passed duty-to-retreat laws to reduce deadly violence. It was initially believed that the duty to retreat introduced by colonial England was the essential self-defense legislation; however, when no duty to retreat laws became more prevalent, states began establishing explicitly duty to retreat laws (Drury, 2022). These rules do not restrict using deadly force in self-defense within the house but rather seek to reduce violence in all other potentially dangerous situations. Several states have passed duty-to-retreat legislation, including Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, and Nebraska. The states that have embraced this law have recorded minimal homicides and firearm suicides compared to the states that have enacted the castle doctrine.
From the above discussion, it is clear that the enaction of the castle doctrine law has led to increasing homicide and firearm suicides. There are also current legislation and laws that relate to the topic and have been enacted by some states. The stand-your-ground and duty-to-retreat law has attracted the attention of many homicides and firearms scholars. From the above discussion, the states that have embraced the stand-your-ground law, for instance, Florida, record an increase in homicide and firearm suicides than the states that have not enacted the law. Therefore, from the above arguments and evidence, the states that have neglected the duty to retreat should redefine and embrace the law to minimize the violence that causes homicide and firearm suicide. The states like New York and Delaware should continue embracing the duty to retreat law to keep the state free from violence, homicide, and firearm suicides.
References
Crifasi, C. K., Merrill-Francis, M., McCourt, A., Vernick, J. S., Wintemute, G. J., & Webster, D. W. (2018). Association between firearm laws and homicide in urban counties. Journal of Urban Health, 95(3), 383–390. Web.
Drury, M. (2022). Duty to retreat vs. stand your ground laws. Web.
Humphreys, D. K., Gasparrini, A., & Wiebe, D. J. (2017). Evaluating the impact of Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law on homicide and suicide by firearm: An interrupted time series study. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(1), 44–50. Web.
Knowles, H. (2022). Stand your ground’ laws linked to 11% rise in U.S. firearm homicides, study says. Web.
McClellan, C., & Tekin, E. (2017). Stand your ground laws, homicides, and injuries. Journal of Human Resources, 52(3), 621–653. Web.
Yakubovich, A. R., Esposti, M. D., Lange, B. C., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Parmar, A., Wiebe, D. J., & Humphreys, D. K. (2021). Effects of laws expanding civilian rights to use deadly force in self-defense on violence and crime: A systematic review. American Journal of Public Health, 111(4), e1-e14. Web.