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Stand-your-ground by statute
Stand-your-ground by judicial decision or jury instruction
Duty to retreat except in one's home
Duty to retreat except in one's home or workplace
Duty to retreat except in one's home or vehicle or workplace
Middle-ground approach (DC, WI)
No settled rule (AS, VI)
| Criminal defenses |
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| Part of the common law series |
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| Other common law areas |
| Portals |
In law, the duty to retreat, or requirement of safe retreat,[1]: 550 is a legal requirement in some jurisdictions that a threatened person cannot harm another in self-defense (especially lethal force) when it is possible instead to retreat to a place of safety.[1]: 549–554 This requirement contrasts with the right in some other jurisdictions to stand one's ground, meaning being allowed to defend one's self instead of retreating.
It is a specific component which sometimes appears in the criminal defense of self-defense, and which must be addressed if criminal defendants are to prove that their conduct was justified. Depending on the state the criminal defendants have to prove a minimal time period of safe retreat.
- ^ a b Criminal Law - Cases and Materials, 7th ed. 2012, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business; John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder, ISBN 978-1-4548-0698-1, [1]