| In many respects, the findings in this survey are not surprising. The family unit in America has deteriorated slowly over the past few decades. Many children grow up in broken homes with few, if any, role models to teach them right from wrong, much less instill them with the courage to make morally correct decisions. Indeed, gang rituals have replaced family traditions; gang violence has replac�ed family values. Thus, crime prevention strategies that target entire families and intervene early, combined with swift and sure punishment for law�breakers, including aggressively enforced three strikes laws, may produce the greatest deter�rent effect. |
| "Since California enacted its three strikes law in 1994, crime has dropped 26.9 percent..." |
| Conclusion |
| Many offenders who have been through the criminal justice system repeatedly have learned through experience that the punishment for their actions is not severe enough to deter them from reaping the rewards of future criminal acts. Juvenile offenders learn the same lesson at an age that may make them destined for a life of crime. Yet, the results of a survey of a group of
juvenile offenders in California suggest that when young criminals face specific, long-term sanctions for repeated offenses, they may be deterred from commit�ting future acts. Thus, strictly enforced three strikes laws may break the cycle of crime that often begins early in a youth�s life. |
| Scholars and practitioners alike continue to debate whether criminals are products of their genes or their environments. Those who believe criminals are born advocate incarceration as a means of inca�pacitation, while those who think criminals are made favor rehabilitation. The continuing contro�versy of whether the purpose of incarceration is for rehabilitation or incapacitation will continue for some time to come. Until this debate is resolved, offenders, at least in states with three strikes legisla�tion, will have fewer opportunities to prey on inno�cent victims. |
|
| Endnotes |
| 1Robert F. Meier and Weldon T. Johnson, �Deterrence as Social Control: The Legal and Extra-legal Production of Confornrity,� American Sociological Review 42 (1977) 292-304.
|
| 2 Daniel S. Nagin and Raymond Paternoster, �The Preventive Effects of the Perceived Risk of Arrest: Testing an Expanded Conception of Deterrence,� Criminology 29, no. 4 (1991): 561-587.
|
| 3Raymond Paternoster and Alex Piquero, �Reconceptualizing Deterrence: An Empirical Test of Personal and Vicarious Experiences,� Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 32 (August 1995): 252. 286. |
| 4The concept of deterrence also includes certainty and swiftness of punishment. For a more in-depth review of the literature, see Raymond Paternoster, �Decisions to Participate in and Desist from Four Types of Common Delin�Perspective,� Law and Society Review 23, no. I
(1989): 7. |
| 5U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, �Three Strikes and You�re Out: A Review of State Legislation,� Research in Brief (Washing�ton, DC, September 1997), 1. |
| 6 California Penal Code, Section 1170.12. |
| 7Supra note 5. |
| 8Attorney General Dan Lungrin, press release no. 98-034, March 5, 1998.
|
| 9Ibid. |
| 10 John J. Dilulio, Jr., �Arresting Ideas: Urban Crime,� Policy Review 74 (Fall 1995):5. |
| 11�The FBI classifies the following crimes as index offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Supra note 8, 214. |
| 12 Supra note 8,214. |
| 13 M.E. Wolfgang, R.M. Figlio and T. Sellin, Delinquency in a Birth Cohort (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 67. |
| 14Supra note 5, 213. |
| 15 James Wootton and Robert 0. Heck. �How State and Local Officials Can Combat Violent Juvenile Crime,� The Heritage Founda�tion, State Backgrounder, no. 1097/S, October 28, 1996, 2. |
| 16 Anthony M. Platt, The Child Savers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 9. |
| 17 William E. Thornton, Jr. and Lydia Voigt, Delinquency and Justice (New York: McGraw Hill Inc., 1992), xxv. |
| 18 Charles E. Silberman, Criminal Violence, Criminal Justice (New York: Vintage Press, 1980), 247.
|
| 19 Ibid. |
| 20This survey did not examine differences by age, which may have a deterrent effect when offenders consider the likelihood they will be transferred to adult court for prosecution. |
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