The Impacts of Stand Your Ground Laws on Crime Rates

Abstract

This study examines the impact on crime rates that occur when Stand Your Ground (SYG) laws are implemented in a state that previously had a Castle Doctrine in place. Specifically, violent crime and homicide crime rates in states with SYG laws are analyzed using Regression with Difference Scores models. Currently there is limited research on how SYG affects crime rates at the state level and most of the research focuses on Florida, so this study expands the knowledge that currently exists to include other states that have implemented SYG. The Regression with Difference Scores models showed that, controlling for changes in the control variables, the shift from just Castle Doctrine to SYG did not have a statistically significant effect on either the changes in the violent crime rates or homicide rates between the time periods measured. These results open up additional questions and avenues of research that needs to be done in order to properly evaluate the effectiveness of SYG laws and to make an informed decision regarding how SYG should be addressed by lawmakers in the future.