Can Electronic Monitoring Reduce Reoffending?

Jenny Williams and Don Weatherburn ()
Additional contact information
Don Weatherburn: Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

No 12122, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This research evaluates the impact of electronic monitoring as an alternative to prison on reoffending. Leveraging plausibly exogenous variation in sentencing outcomes generated by quasi- random assignment of judges, we find electronic monitoring reduces reoffending within 24 months by 16 percentage points compared to serving a prison sentence. For offenders who are less than 30, the reduction is 43 percentage points, with sizeable and significant reductions in reoffending persisting for 8 years. Our calculations suggest that criminal justice costs are reduced by around $30,000 for each eligible offender who serves their sentence under electronic monitoring rather than in prison.

Keywords: reoffending; prison; electronic monitoring; crime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2019-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Review of Economics and Statistics, 2022, 104 (2), 232–245.

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Journal Article: Can Electronic Monitoring Reduce Reoffending? (2022)
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