The study assesses the relationships between law, legal policy, and criminal choice. It is argued that the level of criminal violence can be reduced through legal changes which increase the probability of receiving a severe prison sentence upon conviction. Decreasing the opportunities for plea bargaining and reducing the discretionary powers of judges will reduce the number of crimes in society. / The law selected for the study is Florida's mandatory gun law. It was specifically created to reduce violent gun crime. The statute mandates a minimum sentence of three years for those convicted under the law. It requires that the charges for the offense cannot be dropped once they are officially filed and that the trial judge must sentence those found guilty to a minimum of three years. The law does not allow for gain time nor early parole. Creators of the law felt that it would increase the certainty of punishment as well as the severity of punishment. / Results of a Box-Tiao intervention analysis indicate that the law did reduce the amount of armed robbery, total robbery, homicides committed with a firearm, and total homicides. The effects of the law, however, subsided after a twenty-four month time period. Our theory of criminal choice is generally supported by the data. The inability of the mandatory gun law to continue its reducing effects on violent crime is attributed to the sentencing policies of trial judges. It is suggested that the operations of the criminal justice system tend to negate the impact of the law. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0564. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75028 |
| Contributors | DEZEE, MATTHEW RAYMOND., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 293 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds