Killing of burglars by homeowners: A step too far?

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At least 1 burglar is killed by a homeowner in the United States of America every week.  This translates into 4 burglars a month or 48 burglars a year who are being killed by homeowners.  This number is far greater than that of burglars being killed in Great Britain every year.   About 4 burglars are killed by homeowners in Britain annually.  In all of these cases homeowners had relied on the right to self defence for the killings.  As a result, only a very few number of them have been prosecuted either in America or Britain for the acts.  There are wider implications for killing of burglars by home owners..

The Killing of burglars by homeowners might serve as deterrence for future burglaries.  Once they recognise that the law supports homeowners who kill them, burglars might be less inclined to burgle people’s property.   If fewer attempts are being made by criminals to burgle property then there will be fewer cases of homeowners killing burglars.  However, burglars might begin to arm themselves in more dangerous ways than they normally do before going out for burglary.  This can increase the amount of risk faced by homeowners.

Homeowners are also indirectly exercising the right to protect their property by killing burglars.  They work hard for such assets when burglars were busy doing nothing to help themselves.  They should not be prosecuted for killing burglars who attempt to take the assets by force.  However, if homeowners are exonerated for killing burglars,  local stores and organisations running their own businesses can also rely on the same defence for extrajudicial killing of any suspected criminals.  

Extrajudicial killing (killing not permitted by the court) of suspected burglars by homeowners is capable of undermining the whole judicial process.  The judicial system is established for prosecution of criminals and sentencing them.  This cannot be achieved if suspected burglars are not brought before the court and afforded the opportunity to plead their innocence or guilt to the alleged crime.

In addition, homeowners may kill innocent individuals under the mistaken identity that the individuals were burglars.  For the fact that there are no differences between criminals and non-criminals in terms of physical look a homeowner cannot easily establish whether a person is a potential burglar.    Already there are cases involving homeowners who mistakenly killed drunken individuals after believing that they were burglars who were trying to burgle their homes.  

These have shown support for and against killing of burglars by homeowners.  I think homeowners should be discouraged from killing burglars that attempt to burgle their assets by imposing tougher sanctions on individuals convicted of burglary.  Although it can be difficult to achieve, this should be done whenever possible.  

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