"striking out" as crime reduction policy: The impact of "three strikes" laws on crime rates in US cities

Author: Kovandzic TV / Sloan JJ / Vieraitis LM
Publication: Justice Quarterly
Topics: Crime Legislation and Policy U.S./National
Keywords: CRIME three strikes
Bibliographic information +

The authors examined the effect of “three strikes” laws, whereby severe sentence enhancements are mandated for criminals with prior convictions, using information from FBI reports on crimes in cities with populations of 100,000 or more from 1980 to 2000. They found no statistical evidence that “three strikes” laws had reduced crime rate.