However, it did not take 25 years for California's crime rate to drop more than 22%. It took just four years. Since the passage of "Three Strikes," in fact, the violent crime rate in California has dropped 26.9% with a 30.8% drop in the six major crime categories.⁸

California has experienced its largest overall drop in crime over any four-year period in history with double digit drops in every major crime category between 1994 and 1997. The result of this drop in crime means that California now has its lowest murder rate since 1970 and its lowest overall crime rate in 30 years.

To understand this recent drop in crime, we must look at the trends in the past. For the most part, crime rates in California increased until 1980.⁹ For the first five years of the 1980s, the crime rate experienced its largest pre-Three Strikes drop. The overall crime rate dropped by 20.2%, the violent crime rate dropped by 13.8% and the homicide rate dropped by 26.4%. This five-year period of dropping crime rates, while impressive, does not compare to the dramatic drop in the crime rate since the passage of "Three Strikes."

⁸1997 crime rate is based on an estimate of the Preliminary Report Crime 1997. January Through December and July, 1997 population estimates by the Department of Finance Demographics Unit.
⁹Crime and Delinquency in California. 1996, California Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Justice Information Services.

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