A License to Kill?

On February 26, 2012, Florida’s Stand Your Ground (SYG) law prompted national coverage when George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, fatally shot and killed 17 year old Trayvon Martin. Claiming to have acted in self-defense, Zimmerman’s actions highlighted the potential dangers of SYG laws that permit the use of self-defense in public areas without a duty to retreat.

In “Stand Your Ground Laws, Homicides, and Injuries,” Chandler McClellan and Erdal Tekin study the causal relationship between SYG laws, homicide rates, and emergency room visits. Since 2005, 18 states have passed SYG laws as a deterrent to crime under the assumption that crime should decrease if law-abiding citizens are given the right to publicly use force in self-defense, without the duty to retreat. However, existing studies reveal that SYG laws do not deter crime; in fact, some studies suggest that SYG laws are associated with an increase in the homicide rate. McClellan and Tekin’s analysis provides further evidence of this link.

McClellan and Tekin use regression analysis to study monthly firearm related homicide rates before and after the implementation of SYG laws, and to examine how the effects of SYG laws vary by race and gender in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2004 to 2011. The authors observed a decline in average homicide rates in all states prior to implementation of SYG laws. During the period of study, however, SYG states witnessed a 6.8 percent average increase in their homicide rate following passage of SYG laws during the period of study. Their data show that the average homicide count of SYG states is 24.2 homicides per month, as opposed to 16.8 in non-SYG states.

The authors find that this increased homicide rate is a result of the increase in homicides committed by white perpetrators, particularly men. Following the passage of SYG laws, the number of homicides committed by white males increased by an average of 17.1 percent. Changes in homicide rates among blacks and white women were not statistically significant.

After establishing a positive relationship between SYG laws and homicide rates, the authors hypothesize that SYG laws might also result in an increase of firearm injuries that require emergency room visits and hospitalization. The authors, in the first study to link firearm related injuries to SYG laws, found a 20 percent increase in the hospitalization of white males following the passage of SYG laws, and a 60 percent increase in the hospitalization of black females from firearm related injuries.

Critics of this study may argue that the increase in homicide rates could be due to more deaths being categorized as justifiable homicides under SYG rather than non-justifiable murders. The authors suggest that if this argument holds weight, the total number of homicides should remain constant while non-justifiable homicides decrease and justifiable homicides increase. However, the authors’ analysis shows that SYG laws result in both a 47 percent increase in justifiable homicides and a 23 percent increase in non-justifiable homicides committed by white males. As SYG relates to an increase in both types of homicides, the increase in homicide rates is not a result of categorizing more homicides as justifiable.

McClellan and Tekin’s analysis suggests that Stand Your Ground laws are positively related to an increase in homicide rates among white males, an increase which translates to 28 to 33 more deaths per month in all SYG states. These findings contribute compelling evidence in the debate over the efficacy of SYG legislation.

Feature Photo: cc/(Thomas Hawk)