NCJ Number
181495
Journal
Punishment & Society Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: October 1999 Pages: 131-162
Date Published
October 1999
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This article evaluates the impact on crime deterrence, incapacitation and/or just deserts of “Three Strikes and You’re Out” legislation.
Abstract
More than 24 States and Congress have passed legislation under the slogan “Three Strikes and You’re Out.” As part of the general political thrust to mandate increasingly tougher prison terms for repeat offenders, this form of legislation seeks to ensure that habitual offenders receive the toughest sentence available to the State absent the death penalty: life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. With the noted exception of California, the legislation has had virtually no impact on the courts, local jails, State prisons, or crime rates. Even in California, where the law was expected to have a major impact, it appears that all of the projections were in error. The article concludes that this form of legislation was carefully crafted to be largely symbolic. However, the gross errors by some of the most prestigious researchers in predicting the impact of these and other laws underscores how little is known about change within the criminal justice system. Tables, figures, references