Defending the Spirit: The Right to Self-Defense Against Psychological Assault

Authors

• Kindaka J. Sanders

Abstract

The law criminalizes individuals who physically resist emotional or psychological violence, even though emotional injuries can cause greater harm than their physical counterparts. As the law exists today, if a victim of extreme psychological and emotional violence meets that violence with comparatively minor physical force, he or she risks criminal conviction while the emotional aggressor will most likely be legally protected. This article suggests that the legally accepted view of harm is outmoded and should be updated to reflect the accepted realities in current psychological and sociological science. I argue that a self-defense instruction is warranted when an individual uses non-deadly physical force to ward off psychological attacks that create a substantial risk of serious psychological injuries such as post-traumatic stress, depression, or anxiety. The article offers a statutory model designed to help decriminalize those who act reasonably in defense of their spirits. It also explores, briefly, the potential for the Second Amendment to serve as a constitutional basis for the use of physical force in protecting the liberty, psychological, and dignity interest of citizens—that is, a justification for defending the spirit as well as the body.

Recommended Citation

Kindaka J. Sanders, Defending the Spirit: The Right to Self-Defense Against Psychological Assault, 19 Nev. L.J. 227 (2018).
Available at: https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/nlj/vol19/iss1/7