Per capita murder rates in the US peaked at 9.8 (per 100k) in 1991 and we still close to that peak at 9.5 when CA passed their three strikes law in 1993. Edit:

Per capita murder rates in the US peaked at 9.8 (per 100k) in 1991 and we still close to that peak at 9.5 when CA passed their three strikes law in 1993. Edit: actually 1991 was a local maxima. It was exceeded by a bit in the early 80s. Still though these laws were definitely passed when crime was quite high.