greetings mr. dean,
the study appears in the most recent issue of the journal Criminology and Public Policy vol.1 no.3 (July, 2002). the library at SUNY Buffalo should have a subscription to the journal (i would, of course, check first).
we did not make a direct connection between perpetrators' attitudes and increases in murder (for example, we did not interview convicted murderers who faced a third strike for an armed robbery or armed burglary to inquire whether they killed to try and escape arrest and prosecution under 3x laws). rather, we were suggesting a possible explanation for our results.
we used a time-series methodology for the study that included many control variables in the statistical models (variables that could have been related to increases or decreases in homicide rates over the period). we also had two samples of cities: 110 cities located in states w/ three strikes laws and 78 cities in states w/o three strikes laws. we also collected and compared homicide data for both groups of cities for several years before passage of the laws (to insure there was not a signficant upward or downward trend prior to the passage of the laws). complete details of the methodolgy are found in the study.
thanks for the interest in our work. please contact me if you have further questions. if you can't find the journal, i'm sure we could send to you a copy of the paper.
cheers,
john sloan
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 AIM: KDean75206 Buffalo Activist Network http://www.buffaloactivist.net http://www.yaysoft.com
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