Describe Three-Strikes Law Research Assignment Paper

Three Strikes Laws
Name
Institution
Three Strikes Laws
Introduction
The three strikes have gained prominence in 1994 after California State adopted the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” punishment guidelines (Kovandzic , Sloan, & Vieraitis, 2004). Following the passage of these guidelines, the national government and majority of the states adopted or formulated sentencing laws that are similar to help in sentencing habitual offenders. The overall reduction in the rate of crime during the early days helped in reinforcing the belief that the law was good for the country. However, some researchers feel that the overall drop in the rate of crime was as a result of other factors outside legislation and that a general drop in the rate of crime was witnessed across the United States in the 1990’s (Auerhahn, 2004). This paper examines the history of the Habitual Offender Laws, as well as the pros and cons of the laws. The paper then gives the impact of these laws in the society and concludes by examining whether the laws are ethical or unethical.
The History of Three Strikes and You’re Out Laws
The Three Strikes and You’re Out laws have been adopted by legislators at both the national and the state levels. The legislations require that judges sentence law breakers who have been convicted three times for longer periods in prison. Directed towards repeat offenders, three strikes laws were designed on the belief that crime was on an upward trend and that a tough reaction will bring down the rate of crime. The laws are founded on the assumption that offenders that have been convicted for three times have no desire to conform to the set laws and as such they should be locked from the society for longer periods of time (Jennings, 2006).
The reasoning behind the three strikes rule is that if the cost of a behavior is higher than the profit, there will be a less likely chance of choosing the behavior. Once an individual continues to pursue a certain behavior despite the consequences, the cost should be increased in order to minimize the likelihood of the behavior. This problem with this approach is that it does not consider the other possible causes of criminal behavior and as such the only policies to reduce the crime are based on this theory. Although there are those who feel that the three strikes rule has helped in the reduction of crime, there is another part of the society which feels that the laws fail to follow the due process of the law and that it lacks fairness (Chen, 2008).
Despite the fact that the three strikes laws are a fairly recent phenomenon, the criminal justice system has for a long time identified the need of having longer sentences for repeat offenders. In the 17th century, both England and colonial America had rules that sought to confine repeat offenders for a longer time in prison. Throughout history, these laws have been controversial and in most places they were rejected before they could be used. Despite this disquiet, habitual offender laws have remained in use across the United States as the society views these laws as being necessary for punishing offenders who are viewed as being beyond rehabilitation. The challenge is that there is evidence which s...