Literature Review On Three Strikes Law

Literature Review
Three Strikes: Original Intent
Repeat offenders are perhaps the most difficult offender population for the system to handle, and “protecting communities from these offenders may be the most emotionally and politically charged challenge for the criminal justice system” (Dickey & Hollenhorst, 1999). Though most states had statues targeting career criminals, policy makers and the public continued to push for harsher punishments for repeat offenders during the twentieth century (Brown & Jolivette, 2005). As a result, strict sentencing laws were enforced, such as, three strikes laws that required a person convicted of a felony, that had a previous conviction of one or more felonies to receive a sentence enhancement (Brown & Jolivette,
Essentially, there is a basic assumption that offenders are rational in choosing to engage in crime, and that they are all treated fairly throughout the justice process. However, these assumptions are questionable when assessing three strikes laws, which are not always applied evenly. Thus, three strikes laws have been scrutinized for raising concerns with regard to its legality and constitutionality. The lack of clarity on three strikes laws has raised questions in regard to “juvenile convictions without the right to a jury trial as being a strike, whether courts have the authority to dismiss a third felony case, if felonies in other states can be counted as strikes”, and so on (Brown & Jolivette, 2005, p.1). The most significant challenge is the claim that three strikes violates the 8th amendment, against cruel and unusual punishment, in that, a repeat offender can be given a 25-year to life sentence for a nonserious or nonviolent felony conviction (Brown & Jolivette, 2005). Some also believe that three strikes violates the “proportionality rule” in sentencing, because the sentence does not fit the crime, in that, “ a relatively minor crime committed by a repeat offender could result in a much harsher punishment than a violent crime committed by a first-time offender” (Brown & Jolivette, 2005,