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Results for offender supervisioin

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Author: Graham, Hannah

Title: Scottish and International Review of the Uses of Electronic Monitoring

Summary: This Review provides a bounded overview of Scottish and international evidence and experience of the uses, purposes and impact of electronic monitoring (EM). Electronic monitoring, using radio frequency (RF) technology, currently operates at a number of points in the adult criminal justice system in Scotland, which are reviewed in Section 2. EM is most often used with adults as a stand-alone measure without additional criminal justice social work supervision and support from others. Restriction of Liberty Orders (RLOs) and Home Detention Curfews (HDCs) are the two most commonly used electronic monitoring modalities, making up 53% and 45% respectively of all electronically monitored orders in Scotland (G4S, 2015). In terms of children and young people (aged under 16 years), electronically monitored movement restriction conditions are used in a relatively small proportion of cases of those supervised through Intensive Support and Monitoring Service (ISMS) orders in Scotland. Electronic monitoring is significantly cheaper than the cost of incarceration. The average unit cost for electronic monitoring in Scotland in 2013-2014 was L743 (L1,043.73) (a significant reduction from L1,940 (L2,725.21) in 2011-2012) (Scottish Government, 2015; Scottish Government, 2013b). This figure is based on total expenditure across all forms of electronic monitoring, including as part of a Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO) as well as part of Movement Restriction Conditions (MRCs) imposed with children and young people by the Children's Hearings System. In 2013, the average cost per EM order per day in Scotland was estimated at L10.17 (L14.29) (Scottish Government, 2013a: 7). In terms of order completion, approximately 4 out of 5 of those made subject to EM in Scotland complete their period of monitoring (G4S, 2015). There is some evidence that breach rates are higher for those under longer periods of monitoring, among younger people and among those with more extensive criminal histories. Section 3 of this Review provides a circumscribed overview of a range of purposes and uses of electronic monitoring in different international jurisdictions, including: violent crimes; domestic abuse; sexual crimes; alcohol and drug-related crimes; vehicle theft; with people with prolific offence histories and with people suspected or convicted of terrorism. Two types of offenders are highlighted here, in discussions of the international evidence and experience regarding the uses and impact of global positioning system (GPS) tagging and tracking. In relation to sex offenders, this Review establishes the following: - Despite some emergent positive research findings of the impact of this technology during the period of monitoring, there remains a significant lack of empirical evidence to support the positive impact of GPS-based monitoring of sex offenders in terms of increasing compliance, reducing re-offending and enabling desistance and reintegration; - Where research has shown that GPS-based monitoring of sex offenders has been associated with benefits and positive impact, EM is usually integrated with other surveillance, supervision and risk management, and supports; - Where it is used on a mid- to long-term basis, GPS-based monitoring of sex offenders may be less cost-effective and less easily ethically defensible, in that it can cost more than other electronic monitoring technologies such as RF and 'standard' probation supervision, although it remains cheaper than prison, yet it may not realise significant reductions in re-offending and may have unintended consequences in the lives of monitored people. However, findings on the grounds of fiscal efficiency are mixed; some US studies state that GPS monitoring of sex offenders is cost effective. Additionally, Sections 3 and 4 of this Review of the uses, effectiveness and impact of GPS tagging and tracking with domestic abuse defendants and offenders show that: - There has been growth in the use of GPS tagging and tracking in places like the United States, Spain and Portugal, with both criminal justice and civil - in the form of EM restraining orders - pilots and initiatives specifically designed for perpetrators of domestic abuse. A considerable number of these initiatives use GPS EM at the pre-trial stage, to reduce the use of remand (imprisonment) while ensuring surveillance forms a part of tailored risk management within the granting of bail; - Limited available research from the US suggests that pre-trial GPS monitoring of domestic abuse defendants is more effective, in comparison to RF EM, in reducing violations and promoting compliance; - Professional ideology and institutional orientations affect the use and impact of GPS monitoring technology, with motivational and collaborative approaches yielding different results to punitive approaches; - Bilateral EM is becoming a feature of discussions about victim participation in the EM of domestic abuse offenders, and while victims hold a diversity of positions on this, it seems to attract mostly positive responses. The empirical evidence and criminological literature on GPS-based bilateral EM is limited and relatively new, and it is too early to make strong claims about its impact, and comparisons to RF EM, on compliance, reducing re-offending and enabling desistance after their EM order has concluded. Section 4 of this Review highlights a number of other significant findings regarding impact and effectiveness based on international evidence and experience: - Overall, the electronic monitoring programmes and approaches which are shown to reduce reoffending during and/or after the monitored period are mostly those which include other supervision and supportive factors (e.g., employment and education, social capital) associated with desistance. The effective approaches discussed here have developed on the basis of high levels of integration with supervision and support from Probation Officers and other staff and services. In other words, the more effective programmes and approaches, in Europe in particular, are those where EM is not a stand-alone measure. - The effective approaches discussed here use tailored, and in some cases quite restrictive, eligibility criteria to determine who can participate in EM programmes. This affects how the impact of EM on recidivism, desistance and reintegration should be interpreted. - A significant number of the major empirical studies conducted - mostly in North America and the United Kingdom - in the last fifteen years conclude that the efficacy of EM in reducing re-offending after it has concluded is modest or minimal. Whereas research from other countries - especially Scandinavian countries and some European countries - indicates more extensive effectiveness and positive impact. - There is currently only limited empirical literature available which focuses on the perspectives and lived experiences of monitored people regarding issues of compliance (or non-compliance), legitimacy, and desistance from crime. More research is needed. - Flexibility in the use of EM orders and conditions may foster motivation for monitored people to comply. The capacity to incentivise and reduce curfew hours and days (e.g., curfews from 7 days a week down to 5 days a week) as a form of recognition and reward for a monitored person's formal compliance in the initial stages of an order may positively affect their perceptions of the legitimacy of that order. More research on this is needed.

Details: Glasgow: Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, 2015. 137p.

Source: Internet Resource: SCCJR REPORT No.8/2015: Accessed August 28, 2015 at: http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Scottish-and-International-Review-of-the-Uses-of-Electronic-Monitoring-Graham-and-McIvor-2015.pdf

Year: 2015

Country: International

URL: http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Scottish-and-International-Review-of-the-Uses-of-Electronic-Monitoring-Graham-and-McIvor-2015.pdf

Shelf Number: 136612

Keywords:
Alternatives to Incarceration
Desistance
Electronic Monitoring
Global Positioning Systems
Offender Supervisioin
Tagging