The politics of ‘Stand your ground’ law

[spin]

6. It could also be pointed out that in Florida since the SYG law passed violent crime has dropped. ...

Crime rates in Florida have dropped since 'stand your ground,' says Dennis Baxley
Dennis Baxley on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

***snip***

Here, we’re checking whether there’s been a dramatic drop in violent crime since the law went into effect. To do that, we turned to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s crime statistics and various news reports about violent crime in Florida.

We found that violent crime has dropped significantly in Florida since 2005. (The law went into effect Oct. 1, 2005.) We calculated the drop in violent crime rates, to account for population growth. In 2006 and 2007, violent crime rates were up just slightly up compared with 2005. In 2008, the violent crime rate began declining. By 2010, the violent crime rate had dropped 23 percent since 2005. (See chart below.)

But that’s not the whole story. We also looked at crime rates for the five years before the "stand your ground" law started, and we found violent crime was declining during those years as well. Between 2000 and 2005, violent crime dropped 12 percent.

When we turned to news reports, we found many stories documenting drops in crime nationwide over the past decade. Experts have been surprised that the numbers have continued dropping through a historic recession.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/mar/23/dennis-baxley/crime-rates-florida-have-dropped-stand-your-ground/

The article goes on to mention that no one knows why the violent crime rates are dropping That's fair as there are indeed many factors to consider in the violent crime rate equation. However as a single factor it is obvious that SYG did not cause the violent crime rate to skyrocket.

If my profession was a street mugger, I would seriously consider a less dangerous criminal occupation if I lived in Florida or I would move to Chicago. The work environment in the Windy City is far better for street criminals and home invaders than Florida.