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

3 Strikes LawRecidivism is a trend to sink into a familyer pattern of behavior or a tendency to return to criminal behavior. Many studies have been conducted about criminals who begin with flyspeck 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 cheer citizens safety. Mike Reynolds a photographer whose daughter, Kimber, was murdered in1992 during a purse snatching attendant introduced the Three Strikes Law in 1993. State legislators did consider and rejected this virtue because they believed the measures were harsh and costly. However, the Three Strikes Law received national attention from a molybdenum 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 1994 during President Clintons State of the Union Address, he pass on for the personation of a federal Three Strikes Law. In March 1994, calcium passed the Three Strikes bill. Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy criticized the politics surrounding the enactment of the Three Strikes Law of Californias famous recidivist sentencing abstract as sick (Romano, 2010). Although the Three Strikes Law centers on California, Washington was the scratch state to adopt the law while California followed with a broader version. gibe to Dickey and Hollenhorst (1999), 23 states and the federal government adopted some form of three smash-ups and youre out law intending to target repeat unpeaceful offenders (p.1). The law varies among states, but the intent i... ... of offenders convicted on a second strike and 44 percent of those convicted on a third strike (p. 10). Overcrowding proofGenerally, the Three Strikes Law is effective. It has met the goals of deterrence and incapacitation of career criminals without putting a draw out on state budgets and overcrowding prisons. The law has progressed to ensure that it targets only career criminals. each(prenominal) 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 longer 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 exhibit that it is doing its job.