This book is the most comprehensive treatment of the politics and the impact of the 'get tough' criminal sentencing legislation in the US. It includes a major empirical study of the celebrated California 'three strikes' law, the law that imposed a 25-years to life imprisonment the moment of a third felony conviction. 'Three Strikes' is the single most important assault on criminal recidivists in the twentieth century. This book tells the story of how such a revolutionary shift in punishment policy became law, the impact of that legislation on criminal punishments and crime rates in California, and the broad implications of Three Strikes for the ways in which punishment policy is made in democratic governments.

This book is the definitive analysis of the politics and impact of "get tough" criminal sentencing legislation. Zimring, Hawkins, and Kamin examine the origins of the law in California, compare it to other crackdown laws, and analyse large samples of offenders arrested in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco in the year before and the two years after the law went into effect. The study presents compelling evidence that the new regime has been enormously over-rated as a crime prevention measure.