As Home Alone is set in Chicago, Buresh referred to Illinois law for his findings, ultimately declaring that the eight-year-old home defender isn’t breaking the law.
While several of Kevin McCallister’s creative booby traps in Home Alone are very dangerous and potentially lethal, they don’t seem to fall outside of the confines of the law.
“The provision in Illinois law that permits the use of force in defense of a dwelling is fairly permissive,” Buresh explains.
The lawyer adds, “After those intitial encounters, Harry and Marv expressed an explicit intent to inflict personal violence on Kevin, making Kevin’s subsequent acts permissible under 7-2(a)(1).