The castle doctrine allows people to defend the homes from violent intruders. Discuss what challenges this presents to both the people in the dwelling and the intruders.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The castle doctrine removes the duty of retreat from a person’s home. This means that if an intruder enters a home and presents an immediate danger of death to the people within the house, the owner or person in the dwelling can exercise deadly force against that intruder. This creates several challenges. One is the objective level of immediate danger. If a person breaks into a home to steal a television with no weapons and does not go anywhere near a person in the house, does that give a home owner the right to defend that their television with deadly force? Does the owner reasonable fear that the person stealing the TV will cause immediate harm or violence override the intruder’s right to life? A reasonable person standard might allow in this situation the use of force because the TV is an object that can hurt someone when it is thrown at a person. The issue is that the Castle Doctrine does not have universal application and is left up for a jury to decide if a person had a reasonable fear. Juries themselves create the problem of reasonableness due to their own life experiences and prejudges. The next issue is that adding a weapon to the situation may increase the danger to the homeowner. A homeowner may not be well versed in handling a weapon, which can lead them to be disarmed and put people in greater danger. Lastly, when a person engages an intruder and ends up hurting someone unintentionally. This could really happen when engaging those who are intruders into the home. Although there are many reasons, as explained, why engaging an intruder is dangerous, people have a right to protect themselves, their family, and their home. That right cannot be superseding because a people are prepared for when an intruder is in the home. We also cannot worry if a jury is not going to understand reasonableness, juries are educated on the case and what the law is. We trust juries with more than just determining reasonableness in a home invasion situation. The castle doctrine has some issues and some benefits, but it is a law set up allow people to protect their home.