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			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 340
Topics covered in this issue include:
  1) CRIMESTRIKE: As Prisoners Go Up, Crime Goes Down by NRA Alerts 
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Topic No. 1
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 22:10:31 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: As Prisoners Go Up, Crime Goes Down
Message-ID: 
                        NRA CrimeStrike's
                        CrimeWatch Weekly
                       CrimeStrike@NRA.Org
             Breaking news on critical crime-fighting
                 issues, policies and legislation
Vol. 4, No. 8                                     February 24, 1998
                   Justice Dept.: As Prisoners
                     Go Up, Crime Goes Down 
     They are the lowest numbers recorded since the government
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) was launched in 1973,
yet 42 of 1,000 Americans were violent crime victims and  266 of
1,000 households sustained a property crime in 1996, says the
Bureau of Justice Statistics.
     According to Justice Department agency's report, "Criminal
Victimization 1996," citizens age 12 and over suffered 37 million
criminal victimizations, 27 million of them property crimes and
9.1 million in the form of rapes, robberies and assaults.
     Nonetheless, says the BJS, violent crime rates are down 16%
since 1993 and property crime rates down 17%.  The murder rate
alone was down 10% from 1995 to 1996, the largest drop in four
years.
     Unlike the FBI's annual crime reports, which are based on
police records, the NCVS is based on interviews with a
statistical sampling of persons age 12 and over and consistently
shows that crime is undereported.  Only four in 10 violent crimes
and three in 10 property crimes were reported to police in 1996,
the study indicates. 
     In conjunction with this, the BJS says that the nation's
prison and jail population increased nearly 6% last year, from an
estimated 1.6 million to more than 1.7 million by June 30, 1997. 
"It's a simple equation," said CrimeStrike Director Elizabeth J.
Swasey, "more prison means less crime."
                    'Accidental' Killer Guilty
     California rapist, Lawrence Singleton, notorious for raping
15-year-old Mary Bell Vincent and hacking off her arms with an
axe 20 years ago, was found guilty Friday for the first-degree
murder of Roxanne Hayes, 31, of Tampa, FL. (CWW 2/25/97).
     Singleton testified that he had "accidentally" stabbed Hayes
seven times in the face, chest and abdomen.  "I wasn't aware the
knife was going in and out" of Hayes, he said.
     Singleton had been paroled after serving eight years of a
fourteen year sentence, and his release caused an uproar in
California. After numerous communities protested his release,
Singleton moved into a trailer safely on the grounds of San
Quentin Prison.  He then moved to his native Florida, where he
was convicted of this murder.
     Mary Bell Vincent will testify as the state makes it's case
for Singleton's execution.
                  '3-Strikes' Goes To High Court
     
     The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a
California Three-Strikes-and-You're-Out case questioning whether
double jeopardy was involved in an added five-year sentence Angel
Jaime Monge received for having a prior felony "strike."
     A state appeals court upheld Monge's conviction on a drug
offense, but ruled there was insufficient proof that he had used
a dangerous or deadly weapon in the prior conviction that netted
him an added five-year three-strikes sentence.  Further, the
appeals court ruled that double jeopardy protected Monge from
being tried again to establish guilt on the prior conviction. 
     The California Supreme Court reversed, holding that double
jeopardy protections do not apply to the case.  Monge then
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
        OK Study Finds 20% Of Criminals Cause 50% Of Crime
     A survey of criminal activity in Oklahoma conducted by  OU
Professor Bob Reed and graduate student Mickey Hepner has found
that about 20 percent of Oklahoma's criminals commit 50 percent
of the crime.  "There's a small segment of criminals who commit a
large segment of crime,"  Reed said.
     Reed also found that there are no arrests in about half of
the crimes reported in Oklahoma, and more than one third of the
adults arrested were not prosecuted.  The study says that
projected increases in prison populations caused by stiffer
sentences may be overstated because keeping criminals in prison
lowers the number of crimes commited.
     The study was requested by State Finance Director Tom Daxon,
a member of the truth-in-sentencing Commission that helped
produce a bill that was signed into law last year but is tough in
name only. Reform is expected to be one of the top issues in the
legislature this year. 
                      NYC's Wingate Through 
                       The 'Revolving Door'
     New York City Police Commisioner, Howard Safir, called for
an end to parole for anyone convicted of a crime in the city. 
Safir made an example with the arrest of Freedman Wingate, who is
believed to have robbed 21 elderly people in the Bronx.  Wingate
was paroled last May after serving nine years of a 16-year
sentence for a similar string of crimes in 1988.  "This is just
another example of the insane parole system that puts predators
back on the street," Safir said.
     When the Assembly opened in 1998, NRA CrimeStrike issued a
release pledging support of a number of Gov. George Pataki's
crime fighting proposals, including "Jenna's Law," which would
apply truth-in-sentencing to first time violent offenders.
                 E-MAIL US AT CrimeStrike@NRA.Org
=+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.
This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org
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End of GENERAL-RKBA Digest 340
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