# Do more convicts = less crime?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-more-convicts-less-crime/228877>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 12, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-more-convicts-less-crime/228877 "2004-02-12T16:58:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mr.Milton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@Mr.Milton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Milton)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-more-convicts-less-crime/228877/1 "2004-02-12T16:58:47Z")

</div>

This is a follow on to the prison population question/column.

**Do more convicts = less crime?**

Rates of crimes following enactment of “Three Strikes” laws seem to indicate so, especially in California.

The theory there seems to be along Pareto type lines; that is, that 20% of the criminals (or less) cause(d) 80% (or more) of the crime, and that by locking up the continued “bad actors” as defined by repeat offenses, those committing the bulk of the criminal offenses would be unable to do so. S

ince the enactment of the 3 strikes law in CA, crime rates seem to have taken a sharp dive while (as you’d expect) prison populations went up.

But of course, simply filling the jails with just anyone won’t make crime go down. I don’t think we’ll ever know if the terrorization of the population at large in Stalin’s USSR via the arbitrary arrests and gulags had a positive effect on general crime rates.

So maybe: **more “hardened” convicts in prison = less crime.**