Three Strikes Law Essay -- Law, Recidivism, Career Criminals

Three Strikes LawRecidivism 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 comparable 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 lensman whose daughter, Kimber, was murdered in1992 during a purse snatching incident introduced the Three Strikes Law in 1993. State legislators did consider and rejected this police force because they believed the measures were harsh and costly. However, the Three Strikes Law have national attention from a second incident, the 1993 kidnapping of Polly Klaas from her Petaluma home. Polly was kidnapped and murdered by Richard Allen Davis who was on parole during this time. Because of this second incident, in January 1 994 during President Clintons State of the merger Address, he requested for the enactment of a federal Three Strikes Law. In March 1994, California passed the Three Strikes bill. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy criticized the politics contact the enactment of the Three Strikes Law of Californias famous recidivist sentencing scheme as sick (Romano, 2010). Although the Three Strikes Law centers on California, Washington was the first off state to adopt the law while California followed with a broader version. According to Dickey and Hollenhorst (1999), 23 states and the federal government adopted some form of tierce strikes and youre out law intending to target repeat violent offenders (p.1). The law varies among states, but the intent i... ... of offenders convicted on a second strike and 44 pct of those convicted on a third strike (p. 10). OvercrowdingConclusionGenerally, the Three Strikes Law is effective. It has met the goals of deterrence and incapacitation of c areer criminals without putting a strain on state budgets and overcrowding prisons. The law has progressed to ensure that it targets only career criminals. Each state has its own methods of exercising preferences to ensure the law is fairly applied. The Three Strikes Law focuses on individuals and determines whether they receive longish sentencing because of their past criminal conduct. Justice OConnor explained, Recidivism is a serious public safety concern in California and throughout the nation (Goodno, 2007). The law was enacted to handle this concern, and currently, the law is showing that it is doing its job.