| Case study: Self-defence - Jaswinder
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This case study asks the students to think about the moral dilemma of harming someone in self-defence.
Additional information
When someone believes it is necessary to use force to defend themselves or another person, they may use such force as is reasonable in all the circumstances to prevent or discontinue an attack. Reasonable force can include killing someone, in cases where extreme force is being repelled.
It is almost certainly within the bounds of reasonableness to keep articles in 'strategic' places in and around the house for self-defence. So, taking a knife or baseball bat to one's bedroom is in itself reasonable, although it must then be used in a reasonable way. However, the installation of a permanent device designed to harm intruders (e.g. wiring up a window sill to the mains at night) is almost certainly illegal. The law is concerned, for example, about the threat from such devices to innocent people such as emergency service workers.
It is also lawful (if it is reasonable in the circumstances) to make a 'pre- emptive strike' to prevent an imminent attack, so long as only reasonable force is used.
It is probably reasonable for a woman to stab a male intruder in the back when he is near her bedroom door; but things might well be different if the home owner coming out of the bedroom was a six-foot tall karate expert and the intruder was a girl aged ten. It is, by way of contrast, probably not reasonable to attack a burglar once they have left your premises, unless you believe he is about to attack you. It is certainly not justified to stab or otherwise accost someone simply because they may commit crimes in the future: that is a matter for the police. The courts take a dim view when citizens take the law into their own hands.
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