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CENTER ON JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PRESS RELEASE |
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| www.cjcj.org |
| Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 54 Dore Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 | Tel: (415) 621-5661 | Fax: (415) 621-5466 |
For Immediate Release: March, 1999
Striking Out: The Failure of California's "Three Strikes and You're Out" Law
CONTACT: Daniel Macallair
E-mail: [dmacallair@cjcj.org]
Tel: (415) 621-5661 x310
"3-Strikes"; Sentencing Proves a Bust On 5-Year Anniversary:
New Study Finds No Evidence 3-Strikes Cuts Crime
San Francisco, CA A new academic study forthcoming in the Stanford Law and Policy Review could not find any evidence that the use of "three-strikes" sentencing reduced crime in California counties. The study examined and compared crime, arrests, and sentencing in California from 1991 to 1997, using data provided by the state attorney general`s office and the state department of corrections. "Three-strikes is a bust," says Dan Macallair, a study co-author and associate director of the Justice Policy Institute. "Even worse, all the rhetoric and political grandstanding behind three-strikes has blinded us."
- Comparing data from California`s 12 largest counties, the study found that counties that vigorously and strictly enforced California`s "3-strikes" law did not experience a decline in any crime category relative to more lenient counties.
- Data revealed that the highest sentencing counties are invoking the law at rates 3 to 12 times higher than the lowest counties. For example, Los Angeles and Sacramento counties invoked the law seven times as often as Alameda and San Francisco counties yet did not show a greater reduction in crime. San Francisco, the county that most sparingly used 3-strikes sentencing, witnessed a greater decline in violent crime, homicides, and all index crime than the six most heavily enforcing counties.
- Proponents of 3-strikes had predicted that the law would particularly cut crime in the over 30 age group since this population would most likely be affected by the law. In fact, the study found that the over 30 age group was the only group to display increased in violent crime and total felony arrest during the post "three strikes period."
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