While the castle doctrine law otherwise referred to as ‘stand your grounds’ law is gaining popularity in many states, few people understand its deterrent effects. The law provides right and legal justification to an individual to protect oneself and the family from intruders and burglars who break into people’s homes. This paper seeks to determine whether or not castle doctrine law serves as a deterrent to crime. This paper determines that indeed the castle doctrine law has deterrent effects on crime.
According to deterrence theory, there are two significant components which include severity of punishment and certainty of detection (Ren, Zhang & Zhao, 2015). These two components determine the deterrent effect of a law. With regards to castle doctrine law, the main purpose of this law is to offer protection to the residents by granting them the right to use force including lethal means as a form of self defense. The law also aims at acting as a deterrent to burglars who plan to commit the offense. It is worth noting that the use of force on a burglar who breaks into homes can be deadly. For this reason, this paper argues that using deadly means such as shooting for self-defense acts as a stimulus which sheds light on the deadly consequences of getting involved in burglary by invoking the idea of punishment and warning potential burglars that they can be killed or shot if they engage in burglary. In this light, the deterrence effect of this law is enhanced or achieved by making the offenders aware that they risk getting punished, or being killed if they engage in this criminal act. For that reason, burglaries would decrease after the law is implemented.
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Reference
Ren, L., Zhang, Y., & Zhao, J. S. (2015). The deterrent effect of the castle doctrine law on burglary in Texas: a tale of outcomes in Houston and Dallas. Crime & Delinquency , 61 (8), 1127-1151.
