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The American public is alarmed about crime, and with good reason. Our crime rate is unacceptably high, and many Americans feel like prisoners in their own homes, afraid to venture out for fear of becoming another statistic. For more than 20 years, state and federal crime control policies have been based on the belief that harsh sentencing laws will deter people from committing crimes. In 1997, armed criminals in Florida committed more than 34,000 crimes, victimizing in excess of 93 people a day. These victims receive a life sentence of pain, fear, and often death. The perpetrators who impose these sentences must be punished and removed from society to protect innocent people. Florida incarcerated a total of 66,280 criminals in 1998(Orlando Sentinel). According to the Council on Crime in America, incarcerating one criminal in state prison for one year can prevent as many as 21 crimes (Swanson, 342). It can be argued that the 'Three Strikes' law stops repeat violent offenders with the threat of longer sentences after each conviction. In agreement with the need for imposed jail terms, allowing three individual convictions to increase the sentence is a mockery of the judicial system. The 'Three Strikes' law represents a faltering attempt at punishing violent criminals.
'We have increased the odds of incarceration,' said Dr. Morgan Reynolds, director of the National Center for Policy Analysis' Criminal Justice Center. 'Perpetrators know it is more costly to commit crime, and that acts as a deterrent'(Reynolds). In the State of Florida, the minimum prison term for a repeat rapist is 10 years. While this is an extensive time to remain locked away from society, the focus should be in the repetition of the crime. Ask the victim of a violent rape if she would endure this violent act again in order to see the perpetrator receive a longer sentence. A man from Moreno County, California would have faced the death penalty for murder if the prosecutors had filed a related burglary charge as a 'three-strikes'(Kataoka). Retribution through punishment is mandatory to remain the civilized society we presume to be.
It has been asserted by lawmakers that a decline in violent crimes is attributed to the '3 Strikes' law. It is further maintained that criminals serve up to eighty-five percent of their prison sentences. 'All the evidence shows that ...
In 1985, fifteen-year-old Paula Cooper of Gary, Indiana and three of her friends began skipping school and participating in illegal activities. The teenagers needed video game money for entertainment and thought they had a good means of obtaining some. Ruth Pelke, a Bible teacher the girls knew, was seen as an easy target for the girls to victimi...
"GOOD MORNING! My name is investigator Holmes. Do you mind answering a few simple questions?" If you open your door one day and are greeted with those words, STOP AND THINK! Whether it is the local police or the FBI at your door, you have certain legal rights of which you ought to be aware before you proceed any further. In the first place,...
ENGLISH SPEECH Imagine yourself in a room, 12 feet long by 6 feet wide. You're sitting on a metal bed bolted to the floor with a thin foam cushion. The only other things in the room are a table and a chair, a sink and a toilet. There is no window, only a small faint light on the ceiling. You spend all of your time in this room, you have no choi...
For John Russell it was just another ordinary night. At 2:00 A.M. he was calmly sleeping. He arose to a cracking noise outside; just then the police came crashing into the house. They ransack his house and found a 3-ounce bag of marijuana. In his underwear only, he is cuffed and taken to jail. In the meantime his wife and two kids huddle in th...
? It's amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to get an edge on the rivaled competition. Often people do not realize the long term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the obvious phenomenon with steroids. Steroids became a spreading exposure to athletes in the Olympics...
December 12, 1984, the first jolt failed to kill Alpha Otis Stephens, he struggled for eight minutes before a second jolt finished the job. The first jolt took two minutes, and then there was a six-minute pause. During this six-minute pause body could cool before physicians could examine him and declare that another jolt was needed. Stephens took 2...
American Civil Liberties Union Briefing Paper Number 8 Since our nation's founding, the government -- colonial, federal and state -- has punished murder and, until recent years, rape with the ultimate sanction: death. More than 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times, most of them in the early 20th Century....
Today there is increasing usage of two very powerful, and dangerous drugs in the youth of this Nation. LSD is one of these drugs, this hallucinogen more commonly known as Acid and is one of the longest lasting highs that are out there. LSD was first researched in 1953 when the Central Intelligence Agency thought that the Soviets and Chinese woul...
? In society today, many people look for a feeling of freedom. Many people go on vacation and spend money. The most common gateway for people is drugs. Our American society is facing a tremendous drug problem. In order to eradicate the drug problem, a public debate is going on to find some solutions to this drug dilemma. It has become a highly cont...
Human nature consists of three basic components. These are to live, to propagate and to dominate. If Humanity was left without any other parameters, this natural state of existence would govern its behavior. Fortunately, there are parameters that exist. These parameters are law. The topic of this paper addresses the type of law that operates in...
Jeriesha Callaway March 26, 2012 Law 11 Belief Case Pg 126 * Case Name: Internet Fraud 509 F.3d 54 U.S. Court of Appeals 2007 * Key Facts: * Michael R. Deppe, 21 year old, offered Rolex watches for sale over the internet in exchange for funds wire transferred directly to his bank account. * 27 transactions and approximately 115,000 in payments...
? It's a cold world . A person's rights are violated every second of everyday. That person wants to see that justice is done! In corrections the 'Justice Model' is a better system of justice then the 'Medical Model'. Unlike the 'Medical Model' the 'Justice Model' holds a person accountable for his/her actions, does not force rehabilitation, and...
Drug abuse most often refers to the use of drugs with such frequency that it causes physical or mental harm to the user and impairs social functioning, according to the definition stated in "Software Toolworks Encyclopedia". This term also refers to the use of a drug prohibited by the law, regardless of whether it was actually harmful or not. Alt...
In Japan, the murder rate is almost 1 per 100,000. In the U.S., there are about 3.2 murders per 100,000 people each year by weapons other than firearms. This means that even if firearms in the U.S. could be eliminated, we would still have three times the murder rate of the Japanese. Japan's murder rate may be low, but its suicide rate is over 20 pe...
