By myth, I mean the half truths and sometime outright nonsense American freepers post here on this subject.
The householders jailed is a tiny tiny minority compared to the many whose actions have been rightly deemed fair.
Those jailed have been deemed to have gone beyond what in Britain is legitimate force. For example, the householder who chased a burglar for half a mile then had his family hold him down whilst he ran over him. That was not suprisingly deemed way beyond legitimate force of defence.
As I have pointed out in other threads, the controversy over Tony Martin and the reasonable force laws have meant that both Labour and esp the Tory-LD coalition have now STRENGTHENED the law in favour of the householder.
BTW, I am a victim of burglary with violence (sept 2008)where I used reasonable force to capture said burglar. So I know from first hand what the issue is.
Remember the media picks up on a tiny minority of cases, and ignores the cases where burglars have been killed and maimed legitimately.