ABSTRACT
Since its introduction in the mid-1990s, electronic monitoring (EM) has become an important component in the criminal justice process in England and Wales. It is used as a condition of bail, as a sentence and for early release. In 2010, 52,000 offenders were subject to EM requirements on community orders (Ministry of Justice, 2011). Stand-alone EM use is common in England and Wales and differentiates it from many other jurisdictions which are much more likely to integrate the use of EM with probation supervision. Just under three-quarters of sentences using EM in England and Wales are single-condition community orders (Rogers, 2011). In 2010, a further 13,000 offenders were released from prison on Home Detention Curfews and 26,000 defendants were released on bail with an EM curfew condition (Ministry of Justice, 2011). EMs growth in England and Wales has been rapid rising from 2,500 in 2000 and it has expanded elsewhere in terms of both the number of countries using it and the number of offenders subject to it. The growing significance of EM at several stages of the criminal justice process means that explanations of compliance must be able to take account of it. Not considering EM and concentrating on other measures and community sentences is likely to mean that compliance theories are incomplete. Furthermore, studying compliance in relation to EM may elucidate how compliance is achieved, or could be enhanced, for other types of community sentence.
