Punishment and Democracy: Three Strikes and You're Out in California

by Gordon Hawkins, Sam Kamin, Franklin E. Zimring

Book Overview

"Getting tough on crime" has been one of the favorite rallying cries of American politicians in the last two decades, and "getting tough" on repeat offenders has been particularly popular. "Three strikes and you're out" laws, which effectively impose a 25-years-to-life sentence at the moment of a third felony conviction, have been passed in 26 states. California's version of the "three strikes" law, enacted in 1994, was broader and more severe than...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195136861
• ISBN13: 9780195136869
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A crucial analysis of a dangerous problem

I'll be using this analysis for my Public Policy course. Zimring has done a great job, and is again bound to offend the simple & easily offended. This book describes how one expecially and literally thoughtless program (3 strikes) was made into law, and how a more rational & legally coherent (10-20-life) competing policy was essentially ignored. Combining data, interviews, and relevent social research (i.e. mobilization theory, media effects, pressure groups, legislative lack of backbone by both Repubs & Dems) he shows how not to make public policy.