I have concluded Jane would have a defense under duress. The elements duress include that a person is threatened, and that the threat caused a reasonable belief that the only way of avoiding serious personal injury or death to oneself or others was to commit the crime (Hall, 2015, p. 267). Therefore Jane had already been attacked, which would fulfill the threat and personal injury portion of the duress defense. Additionally, the attacker was still actively chasing Jane, so she felt the only way for her to avoid additional injury or death, was strike the occupant to gain entry and call the police. Jane’s fear provoked her to commit the crimes of trespass and battery, and all of the elements of duress are present in the incident so I believe
