ABSTRACT
In England and Wales in 2010, 91,000 defendants/offenders were electronically monitored (Ministry of Justice 2011 b). This is some way short of the 126,000 who were received into prison during 2009 (Ministry of Justice 2010) but the continuing and rapid rise in the use of electronic monitoring (EM) is likely to mean that it numerically surpasses the use of imprisonment within the next decade or so. Comparatively little research has been undertaken on EM (and community sentences more generally – see McNeill and Robinson 2012) compared to the large literature relating to prisons. Most studies of EM in the UK have been carried out on behalf of government departments and have been evaluations of pilot projects or re-convictions studies and so have had a narrow focus (for example, see Mair and Mortimer 1996; Mair and Nee 1990; Walter 2002; Walter et al. 2002). Consequently, we know very little about how offenders experience EM and its impact on their behaviour. This chapter discusses the findings of an exploratory study undertaken in the north of England in the mid-2000s, which aimed to explore offenders’ experiences of EM. The chapter will review the findings of the research, focusing specifically upon offenders’ compliance and the potential of EM to assist in the process of desistance. It will also briefly explore the views of the monitoring officers who are responsible for the day-to-day operation of EM in the community and explore how their working practices might impact upon offenders’ compliance and desistance.
