The Ministerial Committee for Legislation has given its support to a bill that would set a mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison for those convicted of three violent crimes committed within a 15-year span. The bill was proposed by MK Yochanan Plesner of Kadima.
The law is meant to fight the growing number of “career criminals,” those repeatedly convicted of serious offenses. A recent study showed that in the past four years, more than 50 percent of criminals were repeat offenders.
The bill defines “violent offenders” as those who cause their victims to lose their sense of personal security.
Plesner noted that a “three strikes” law has reduced crime in the state of California, although California's law has also met with heavy criticism. California's “three strikes” law calls for a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for any person convicted of their third felony offense, a category that can include non-violent theft.
Plesner's “three strikes” bill will now continue to the Knesset for an initial hearing.
While Plesner and other MKs expressed concern over the rising number of violent crimes committed per year in Israel, police statistics showed that the rate of violent crime per capita in Israel has not risen dramatically, and remains one of the lowest in the world. Israel has a rate of theft comparable to that in the United States, but the rate of rape remains half that in the U.S., while the rate of murder remains less than one-third the rate in the U.S.