Electronic Monitoring Bracelets Are Only Crime Deterrence Tools, They Can't 'fix' Offenders (3)
Jul 13, 2022
Continued from the blog posted on Jul 9th.
The pros and cons of tagging
There are a range of benefits and disadvantages to the electronic monitoring of offenders.
It can be effective in holding offenders accountable, protecting victims and enhancing community safety and preventing crimes. These come with important cost savings, particularly when offenders can be safety monitored in the community in lieu of imprisonment or as a mechanism of early release from prison.
But some of the downfalls are that offenders can tamper with their devices, and there can be GPS dead zones—particularly in a geographically vast country such as Australia. There may also be human error in using the systems, such as improper monitoring or unreasonable decision-making after an alert.
Yet collectively, the research evidence highlights that electronic monitoring can be an effective tool for discouraging recidivism. But it is only that: a tool.
The most effective practices for supervising offenders in the community include those that identify and reduce a person's risks for continued criminal behavior.
Electronic monitoring will be most effective when it is used to support supervision that limits a person's access to chances to commit crime. Such supervision should help them redesign their routines so that any risky settings are avoided and are replaced with more positive influences.
Thus, rather than simply giving offenders a long list of rules for what not to do, effective probation and parole strategies help offenders lead productive lives.
More broadly, it is imperative that correctional authorities provide rehabilitative interventions that address the underlying factors that contribute toward a person's criminal behavior. The most effective approaches use cognitive-behavioral techniques to give offenders skills that encourage good decision-making.
Yet electronic monitoring cannot "fix" an offender's impulsivity, lack of empathy, or any other underlying crime-conducive traits. Thus we should not confuse a technological aid with meaningful treatment.
