Thursday, February 14, 2013

'Stand Your Ground' Linked To Increase In Homicides | Reduction

'Stand Your Ground' Linked To Increase In Homicides

Psychopath Killer Kevin Weaver 1988
Psychopath Killer Kevin Weaver 1988 by brizzle born and bred
License (according to Flickr): Attribution-ShareAlike License
Excerpt:

If a stranger attacks you inside your own home, the law has always permitted you to defend yourself. On the other hand, if an altercation breaks out in public, the law requires you to try to retreat. At least, that's what it used to do. In 2005, Florida became the first of nearly two-dozen states to pass a "stand your ground" law that removed the requirement to retreat. If you felt at risk of harm in a park or on the street, you could use lethal force to defend yourself. The shooting of unarmed 17- year - old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. , drew national attention to these laws. Now, researchers who've studied the effect of the laws have found that states with a stand your ground law have more homicides than states without such laws.

People:

Mark Hoekstra

Overall Sentiment: -0.192653

Relevance: 0.882423

SentimentQuote
-0.229188"These laws lower the cost of using lethal force," says Mark Hoekstra, ...
0"These laws lower the cost of using lethal force," says Mark Hoekstra, an economist with Texas A
-0.185821M University who examined stand your ground laws. "Our study finds that, as a result, you get more of it."
-0.242558"Our study finds that, that homicides go up by 7 to 9 percent in states that pass the laws, relative to states that didn't pass the laws over the same time period," he says. ...
-0.210818he says, "we find no evidence of any deterrence effect over that same time period."
-0.534689"We find that there are 500 to 700 more homicides per year across the 23 states as a result of the laws," he said. ...
0"It could be that these are self-defense killings," he said. ...
-0.0956714"It could be that these are self-defense killings," he said. "On the other hand, the increase could be driven by an escalation of violence by criminals. Or it could be an escalation of violence in otherwise nonviolent situations."
-0.0111298Hoekstra checked to see whether police were listing more cases as "justifiable homicides" ...
-0.104956"One possibility for the increase in homicide is that perhaps [in cases where] there would have been a fistfight ... now, because of stand your ground laws, it's possible that those escalate into something much more violent and lethal," says Hoekstra.
0"The imperfect but growing evidence seems to suggest that the consequences of adopting stand your ground laws are pernicious, in that they may lead to a greater number of homicides — thus going against the notion that they are serving some sort of protective function for society," he says. ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 11
  • Aggregate Sentiment: -1.6148312
  • Mean: -0.14680283636364
  • Standard Deviation: 0

John Donohue

Overall Sentiment: -0.153339

Relevance: 0.24231

Disambiguation: References:

Howard Nemerov

Overall Sentiment: -0.139197

Relevance: 0.225275

Disambiguation: Writer | AwardNominee | AwardWinnerReferences:

Rep. Dennis Baxley

Overall Sentiment: 0.069984

Relevance: 0.219884

Marion Hammer

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.199797

Key:

  • Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

Country: United States

Overall Sentiment: -0.122238

Relevance: 0.668275

Disambiguation: Location | Region | AdministrativeDivision | GovernmentalJurisdiction | FilmEditorReferences:
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