Stand Your Ground Laws: A Cry for Repeal
THE EFFECTS OF HYPOXIA
STAND YOUR GROUND: A CRY FOR REPEAL
Stand Your Ground Laws: A Cry for Repeal
Academic and Professional Writing for Graduate Students (LS526-01)
The "Stand Your Ground Law" is one of the most controversial laws in recent years and has gained notoriety due to its enactment in thirty-three states so far. Advocates of the law claim that it reduces the threat of violence in society, but the statistics prove otherwise as research shows that the law actually inflames race-based violence (Purdie-Vaughn, Williams, 2015). As such there are several states that have either taken a wary view of the law and have decided to steer clear of it, or have raised issue(s) with enactment of the law while considering it. It is because of this scrutiny the law has been misunderstood by some people, abused by others, and just manipulated and disguised as self-defense by the rest.
While the southern most states (i.e., Alabama, Florida, and Georgia) have claimed a decrease in crime due to the enactment of the "Stand Your Ground Law," the law should be repealed because it is a less effective means of preventing violence and crime than the Duty to Retreat Laws of other states (Lave, 2013). The Stand Your Ground doctrine essentially encourages individuals to resort to a violent "showdown" even if there is the option of de-escalating the situation by retreating to a safe space. It promotes a posture of "self-defense" that is actually more akin to "aggression" judging by the number of cases in which the law has been used as a defense (Rocio, 2014; McClellan, Tekin, 2012). It also puts more civilians at risk and endangers far more lives precisely because of its aggressive nature. Thus, this paper will show why the Stand Your Ground laws should be repealed.
Stand Your Ground: A Cry for Repeal
Many states have a "Duty to Retreat" clause written into their Criminal Code. New Hampshire, for instance, holds that while a person is justified in using physical force in self-defense "a person is not justified in using deadly force ... if he or she knows that he or she and the third person can, with complete safety, (a) retreat from the encounter ... " (New Hampshire Criminal Code, Section 627:4). New Hampshire's law is similar to other New England states and was similar to many southern states' laws until the latter changed them in favor of the Stand Your Ground law. However, the Stand Your Ground law is not an effective deterrent: on the contrary, it is an effective way to increase violence. Lave (2013) gives several examples of how this law promotes aggressive behavior that can lead to the use of deadly (and unnecessary) force: for instance, there is the case of 61-year-old Joe Horn who shot to death two escaping burglars, neither of whom had posed a threat to his physical person nor "had a prior record for any crime of violence" (Lave, 2013, p. 829). Ordinarily, Horn, having shot them in the back as they fled, "would be guilty of murder" -- but in Texas, which had recently passed a Castle Doctrine modeled on Florida's Stand Your Ground law, Horn was never even indicted (Lave, 2013, p. 829). Essentially, Texas asserted that Horn had the right to be judge, jury and executioner of the two men simply because they had trespassed on his property and stolen something that had belonged to him. In Texas, the philosophy of Stand Your Ground is quite clear: vengeance is no longer the Lord's, it belongs to anyone who feels he has been wronged. It is a "wilderness" mentality, a doctrine of the "old west" where law and order were maintained at the end of a barrel. Is this what the 21st century in America should look like?
Such an attitude or philosophical outlook is very dangerous in America and should be stopped. It goes against the basic tenet of the Golden Rule,...
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