Join Debatepedia's Facebook group! | News: Next on Debate Digest: War on Drugs
See Debatepedia's resources for the Spring 2010 The People Speak Global Debates on climate change adaptation

From Debatepedia

Supporting evidence

• Mandatory Sentencing for Adult Property Offenders. The Norther Territory Experience. Based on a Presentation to the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference 2003. - "The notable feature of Figure 5 is that the rates of reconviction do not change appreciably for first and second strikers. The factors mitigating against the rational decision to commit a property offence, and which are directly associated with the deterrent effect of mandatory sentencing legislation, are:

1. The perceived probability of being caught and successfully prosecuted;
2. Knowledge that a term of imprisonment is a guaranteed penalty if convicted;
3. Knowledge of the minimum length of sentence upon conviction1.

"Of these three factors, only the third varies as the length of an offender’s criminal history increases. Therefore, to the extent that the length of the minimum sentence applying to a prospective offender’s next strike is an effective deterrent, this fact should be revealed in a lower probability of reconviction after two strikes than is observed after one strike. The data at Figure 5 does not provide support for the idea that the threat, or experience, of a longer sentence reduced the likelihood of a person being reconvicted for a mandatory sentencing-related property offense."

Add supporting evidence, quotes, arguments, and links here

Also, feel free to make other arguments into their own pages like this one.