Three Strikes Law looks to returns but is it effective
The Government yesterday announced its commitment to bringing back the Three Strikes legislation, but some feel like it is a step backwards in the fight against crime.
"Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals," Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee told reporters yesterday.
"We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not acceptable in our society.
“This Government will ensure that sentencing for repeat offending properly recognises the harm caused to victims and communities. That is why we are bringing back a revised Three Strikes law.
“We are making changes to create a more workable regime and also to address issues that arose under the previous law, such as capturing minor offending."
Yesterday's announcement provides details of the Government's plans for a revised Three Strikes law.
Introduced in the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010, the previous Three Strikes legislation was repealed in 2022.
The new regime will:
- Cover the same 40 serious violent and sexual offences as the former legislation, with the addition of the new strangulation and suffocation offence;
- Introduce a new requirement that the Three Strikes law will only apply to sentences above 24 months;
- Extend the use of the “manifestly unjust” exception to allow some judicial discretion to avoid very harsh outcomes and address outlier cases;
- Provide a limited benefit for guilty pleas to avoid re-traumatisation of victims, and to improve court delays; and
- See that people who commit murder at second or third strike receive an appropriately lengthy non-parole period.
"We are sending a strong message that repeat offending will not be tolerated," McKee says.
"This is a priority for the Government and continues the progress we have already made on restoring law and order, through changes to repeal the funding for section 27 reports and measures to crack down on gangs."
But not everyone agrees with the Coalition Government's plan to bring back the law, University of Auckland lecturer in Criminology and People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson Emmy Rākete says the Three Strikes law is a tried and failed policy.
"We had a Three Strikes law for more than a decade in this country, and scrapped it because there were no obvious benefits to just arbitrarily lengthening some sentences," says Rākete.
"We know that the causes of crime are things like unemployment, homelessness, addiction, and mental illness, but this government is telling us there is no money for welfare, state housing, or healthcare.
"Three Strikes is an attempt to displace blame from the Government, which is deepening the inequality that causes crime, onto individuals. In the process it will worsen the justice system's discrimination against Māori and against working-class New Zealanders as a whole."
The Associate Justice Minister is intending to bring a draft bill and paper to Cabinet by the end of June, and to introduce the bill to the House soon after that.
