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Chapter Eight

Summary: Chapter Eight: Wilma Derksen

Wilma Derksen’s daughter, Candace, was kidnapped and murdered in Winnipeg in Canada in 1984. Mike Reynolds’s daughter, Kimber, was murdered in Fresno, California, during a purse-snatching in 1992. The two grieving parents’ responses were very different. Within days of Kimber’s killing, by a man with a long police record, Reynolds started a movement to increase penalties for repeat offenders. The result was California’s Three Strikes law, overwhelmingly approved by voters in 1994. Conviction on a third offense now meant a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty-five years. Over the next decade, as California’s prison population doubled, the annual number of murders was cut in half. The law appeared to have worked.

However, Gladwell points out, during the 1990s, crime rates also fell in parts of the country that had no Three Strikes law. The drop in crime, in other words, was a national trend independent of California’s new sentencing rules. Gladwell sees the law as another example of the inverted-U curve. Introducing penalties where there are none undeniably reduces crime. But a criminal who would shoot someone over a purse is unlikely to be deterred if more years are added to the prison sentence for such a crime. Moreover, criminals given Third Strike sentences are typically in their forties and less violence-prone than when they were younger. In short, Three Strikes laws increase penalties at a point where the curve that relates penalties to crime reduction has already flattened. 

What makes the curve turn downward at the right end, argues Gladwell, is the impact on communities. Research by criminologist Todd Clear suggests that when more than two percent of a neighborhood is sent to prison each year, crime rises. Gladwell points out that sending large numbers of young men from a place to prison, and then sending them back to that place results in that place becoming more unsafe, not less unsafe. California radically scaled back its Three Strikes rules in 2012, after research suggested that the cost of all the long incarcerations could not be justified by results. The tipping point for the voting public was the case of a man sentenced to twenty-five years for stealing a slice of pizza.

When Candace Derksen was killed, Wilma and her husband could have reacted like Mike Reynolds. Instead, the Derksens drew on the ideals of the Mennonite tradition they were raised in. When, during a talk with friends, Wilma verbally lashed out at perverts like the one who apparently hogtied her daughter for sexual satisfaction, a friend privately confessed to her of having been addicted to such practices. Wilma chose to try to understand and forgive, and she tried to forgive her daughter’s killer, too. When, decades later, the likely killer was arrested, Wilma again wrestled with her feelings. She was moved to do this, according to Gladwell, because Mennonites understand that the value of retribution is an inverted-U curve.

Analysis: Chapter Eight

When Gladwell introduces the stories of Reynolds and Wilma Derksen, it is not clear at first how he will relate them to the David and Goliath framework. Mike Reynolds is important because his response to his daughter’s murder proves Gladwell’s point about triumph over tragedy. Reynolds alleviates his grief by attempting to enact positive change. Gladwell’s discussion of the Three Strikes Law is important because, on the surface, it is a positive outcome. However, Gladwell complicates his own argument when he introduces a new idea. Just because Reynolds, or anyone, believes in something does not make it right. Reynolds strong convictions regarding harsh punishments for offenders do not mean the Three Strikes Law is effective. Reynolds’s belief is rooted in the misconception that it is best to keep criminals behind bars as long as possible. Gladwell asserts that punishments are not always effective, just as wealth does not always make life easier. He illustrates the relationship between crime rates and punishments through a U-curve, and then uses the curve to illustrate that harsh punishments are only effective until a certain point. Gladwell’s research of crime rates reveals that increased punishment makes crime rates worse and that the Three Strikes Law did the opposite of what Reynolds intended.

Just like more money can negatively affect happiness, anger and the desire for revenge also take a toll on a person. Gladwell reintroduces the idea of the U-curve to illustrate this point. He includes another heartbreaking tragedy to contrast with Reynolds’s experience and introduces readers to Wilma Derksen and the aftermath of her daughter's murder. Rather than inspiration and purpose, her complete focus on figuring out who killed Candace would likely ruin her life. This truth is what the Derksens learned from a stranger who devoted his life to bringing his daughter’s killer to justice. Finding Candace’s killer will not change the outcome, so the Derksens break standard conventions and focus on empathy. Both Reynolds and Derksen are tough, and they are able to do good work for their communities because of the purpose they inherited after the tragedies they experienced. However, Gladwell asserts that Derksen is the one, because of her faith, who truly understands the lack of payoff in retribution and ends what could have been another cycle of violence and pain.

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