History of Feminism
Related: About this forum“Stand Your Ground” Increases Racial Bias
Yesterday a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of teenager Trayvon Martin. The decision was based on a law colloquially called stand your ground (SYG) which allows people to use proportionate force in the face of an attack without first trying to retreat or escape. More than 20 states have such laws.
At MetroTrends Blog, John Roman and Mitchell Downey report their analysis of 4,650 FBI records of homicides in which a person killed a stranger with a handgun. They conclude that stand your ground tilts the odds in favor of the shooter. In SYG states, 13.6 percent of homicides were ruled justifiable; in non-SYG states, only 7.2 percent were deemed such. This is strong evidence that rulings of justifiable homicide are more likely under stand your ground.
But which homicides?
The very kind decided in the Zimmerman trial. A finding of justifiable homicide is much more common in the case of a white-on-black killing than any other kind including a white and a black person. At PBSs request, Roman compared the likelihood of a favorable finding for the defendant in SYG and non SYG cases, consider the races of the people involved. The data is clear, compared to white-on-white crimes: Stand your ground decreases the likelihood of conviction, but only when a white person is accused of killing a black person.
Its simple: SYG laws increase the chances that a homicide will be considered justifiable because it gives the jurors more leeway to give defendants the benefit of the doubt. But, jurors will likely give that benefit of the doubt to certain kinds of defendants and not others. Stand your ground may or may not be a good law in theory, but in practice it increases racial bias in legal outcomes.
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/07/14/stand-your-ground-increases-racial-bias/
BainsBane
(53,032 posts)Mother Jones also has some recent articles on SYG.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/nra-alec-stand-your-ground
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/stand-your-ground-task-force-rick-scott-trayvon
ismnotwasm
(41,977 posts)Thank you; Saw this a few days ago, I really think the graphic is a good one.
BainsBane
(53,032 posts)hlthe2b
(102,261 posts)I can only hope this gets pushed back without delay
hack89
(39,171 posts)What you are seeing is the distorting effect of small samples. Murder is primarily an intra-racial phenomena - whites kill whites, blacks kill blacks.
So you are comparing a large sample (white / white) against a very small one (white / black). Basic statistics tells you that small samples are more likely to produce extremes.
Using Florida as an example, to date there have been 61 white on white SYG cases. There have been 11 white on black, 10 black on white and 26 black on black cases.
The results:
For white on white: 32 justified, 25 convicted, 4 pending
For white on black: 6 justified, 1 convicted, 4 pending
For black on white: 4 justified, 2 convicted, 4 pending
For black on black: 16 justified, 6 convicted, 4 pending
It would appear that at least in Florida, the true impact is that all races get the benefit of the doubt in SYG cases. The proper lesson is that SYG favors the shooter regardless of race.
http://www.tampabay.com/stand-your-ground-law/fatal-cases
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)And of course, the same tired group of idiots will rationalize this as acceptable through the distorted lens of privilege.