ABSTRACT
It is argued that interventions designed to restore order – and to control crime – should be focused on those areas at high risk of becoming, or just beginning to turn into, high crime rate areas. Those areas where crime is already endemic should not have resources devoted to them. The emphasis should be on areas where behaviour can be changed and there is still a possibility of restoring order. In the more problematic localities there should be a more comprehensive assault on criminality itself. The police should detect and prosecute offenders with a particularly vigorous response for repeat offenders advocated. It was this latter proposal that led to the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy in the US whereby following a third offence – however trivial – an offender would receive a very long prison sentence. In 2002 a total of 6,700 people were serving 25 years to life under ‘third strike’ legislation. More than 3,350 of them were non-violent offenders, with 350 serving 25 years for petty theft. Forty-four per cent were black and 26 per cent Latino (Campbell, 2002).
