Offenders' Perceptions of House Arrest and Electronic Monitoring

Abstract

This article reports on a study designed to examine the perceptions of house arrest (HA) and electronic monitoring (EM) among offenders who have recently experienced this criminal sentence. Data were gathered via a self-administered questionnaire and follow-up interviews with a sample of offenders. Our primary areas of interest were to assess (a) the extent to which HA and EM are perceived as punitive, (b) the extent to which this sanction impacts the offenders at home and at work, and (c) to explore the ways in which this criminal sanction impacts family members. While HA with EM was perceived as being less severe than incarceration, it is clear that HA with EM is experienced as a punitive criminal sanction.

KEYWORDS:

• community-based sanctions
• electronic monitoring
• house arrest
• perceptions of offenders

A version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Cincinnati, OH, in March 2008. This project was supported by a grant from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania University Senate Research Committee.

Notes

Based on the range of scores from the questionnaire and the interview data, it seems as if some of the respondents included fines, court costs, and other associated fees when reporting the amount of their fines, while others reported only fines.