U.S. Three Strikes Law And Its Reference For China

Recidivism is the most important issue in criminology or criminal policy since the19th century, and it has great changes and arguments. The earliest American statutes on punishing recidivists with increased sentences was implemented in1796. In the1990s, the famous "Three Strikes and You’re Out" was enacted in the United States to give a sentence enhancement to a person convicted of a felony with prior conviction of one or more violent or serious felonies. The Three Strikes Law has been always in great dispute since its enactment in1994due to the existing problems from implementing, so even someone proposed to abandon it. In2011, China’s8th criminal law amendment made some changes about the recidivist system, reflecting the criminal policy of combining punishment with leniency and invoking new consideration. This thesis makes a comprehensive discussion about the Three Strikes Law starting from its punishment ideas, analyzing its improvement in reviewing and comparing it with current China’s recidivist system to explore each other’s advantage and disadvantage, and then proposes some advice on the base of national conditions.This thesis is divided into four chapters, besides introduction and conclusion. They are as follows:Chapter one introduces American criminal policy when enacting the Three Strikes Law, including the era of Correction and Rehabilitation prior to the Three Strikes Law, in order to understand more why the penalty policy evolved with it and what influence the criminal policy had on the penalty system.Chapter two discusses comprehensively the Three Strikes Law from the point of legislation background, content, focus of dispute, theoretical analysis, effect on criminal justice system and change in Three Strikes Law.Chapter three makes a comparison between the Three Strikes Law and current Chinese recidivist system in the aspects of recidivism establishment condition and legal consequence, including main body scope, objective condition, principle of punishment and treatment system, and then finds the advantages of U.S. recidivism and our disadvantages.Chapter four proposes several references for China’s recidivist system on the base of content of chapter two and three aimed at the disputes of the8th criminal law amendment.