The Three Strikes Law

Three Strikes Law Recidivism is a tendency to relapse into a former pattern of behavior or a tendency to return to criminal behavior. Many studies have been conducted about criminals who begin with petty crimes (misdemeanors) that repeat the same crimes or graduate to serious crimes (felonies). The fear of repeat offenders and the increase of recidivism ignited the federal and state governments to seek harsher ways to protect citizens’ safety. Mike Reynolds a photographer whose daughter, Kimber, was murdered in 1992 during a purse-snatching incident introduced the Three Strikes Law in 1993. State legislators did consider and rejected this law because they believed the measures were harsh and costly. However, the Three Strikes Law received
California then followed in 1994, and by 1996, 23 other states and the federal government enacted similar laws. However, California and Georgia are the only two states that have applied the legislation with any consistency. “As of mid-year 1998, Georgia sentenced almost 2,000 offenders under one and two strike provisions, and California more than 40,000 under two and three strike provisions” (Kovandzic, et al., 2004). There was a political push for this law because in the public’s view, they believed that many offenders were receiving shorter sentences than they previously had and prisons were being used as revolving doors. However, offenders were serving longer terms and incarceration rates had
3). The law has been in effect for more than ten years and three reasons why it has been effective is because “1) the Three Strikes Law appears to be meeting its theoretical goals; 2) some of the initial concerns of the impact of the law have not occurred; and 3) the interpretation of the law has provided for built-in safeguards to ensure that the intent of the law is carried out” (Goodno,