More research is needed on how the impacts of these laws on violence, injury, and criminal justice differ by race and gender across states. In at least some US states, most notably Florida, stand-your-ground laws have been associated with increases in homicides and there has been racial bias in the application of legal protections. Evidence from our review suggests that expanding people’s right to use deadly force has not reduced crime on average across the United States. An additional 7 studies looked at the outcomes of self-defense cases involving stand-your-ground claims in Florida. We identified 25 studies that examined the impacts of stand-your-ground laws and other expansions to self-defense laws on violence, crime, and firearm use and demand in the United States. To understand how such laws may affect public health and safety, we searched for all evidence on the impacts of laws that expand or restrict the right to use deadly force in self-defense. These laws expand people’s right to use deadly force in self-defense anywhere they may legally be without first attempting to retreat. Since 2005, most of the United States have adopted stand-your-ground laws.
Our findings highlight the need for scientific evidence on both population and equity impacts of self-defense laws to guide legislative action that promotes public health and safety for all. In some US states, most notably Florida, stand-your-ground laws may have harmed public health and safety and exacerbated social inequities. In at least some contexts, including Florida, stand-your-ground laws are associated with increases in violence, and there are racial inequities in the application of these laws.
The existing evidence contradicts claims that expanding self-defense laws deters violent crime across the United States. Florida-based studies showed robust increases (24% to 45%) in firearm and total homicide while self-defense claims under stand-your-ground law were more often denied when victims were White, especially when claimants were racial minorities.Īuthor’s Conclusions. Stand-your-ground laws were associated with no change to small increases in violent crime (total and firearm homicide, aggravated assault, robbery) on average across states. Risk of bias was low across most other domains (i.e., selection, missing data, outcome, and reporting biases). Studies were scored as having serious or critical risk of bias attributable to confounding. We identified 25 studies that estimated population-level impacts of laws expanding civilian rights to use deadly force in self-defense, all of which focused on stand-your-ground or other expansions to self-defense laws in the United States. To account for data dependencies, we conducted graphical syntheses (forest plots and harvest plots) to summarize the evidence on impacts and inequities associated with changing self-defense laws. We assessed study quality using the Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions tools adapted for (controlled) before–after studies. Two reviewers extracted study data using a common form. Eligible studies quantitatively estimated the association between laws that expanded or restricted the right to use deadly force in self-defense and population or subgroup outcomes among civilians with a comparator.ĭata Collection and Analysis. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts, Education Resources Information Center, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Google Scholar, National Bureau of Economic Research working papers, and SocArXiv harvested references of included studies and consulted with experts to identify studies until April 2020. To synthesize the available evidence on the impacts and social inequities associated with changing civilian rights to use deadly force in self-defense on violence, injury, crime, and firearm-related outcomes. The extent to which these laws affect public health and safety is widely debated in public and policy discourse. In most cases, legislation has included removing the duty to retreat anywhere one may legally be, commonly known as stand-your-ground laws. Since 2005, most US states have expanded civilian rights to use deadly force in self-defense outside the home.
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