When can duress be used as a legal defense?

Duress can be used as a legal defense specifically in situations involving immediate threats of serious harm. This legal principle is grounded in the idea that a person's free will is compromised when they are faced with imminent danger to themselves or others. The rationale is that individuals may act in a way that they would not normally consider acceptable due to the overwhelming pressure to avoid serious injury or death.

For a duress defense to be viable, several key elements must typically be present: there must be a credible threat of immediate harm, the harm must be of a serious nature, the individual must have no reasonable opportunity to escape the threat, and the response to the threat must be proportional. This makes C the most fitting choice, as it encapsulates the core principles surrounding the use of duress in legal contexts, emphasizing both the immediacy and the severity of the threat involved.

In contrast, choices that suggest minor consequences or property crimes do not meet the threshold typically required for a duress defense, as these scenarios typically do not involve the same level of life-threatening urgency or the level of coercion recognized in legal settings. Similarly, coercion through contractual obligations does not usually qualify as duress, as contractual agreements are not typically associated with threats of immediate harm