The Electronic Monitoring of Offenders in Context: From Policy to Political Logics

Emma Laurie,Giuseppe Maglione

doi:10.1007/s10612-019-09471-7

Emma Laurie, Giuseppe Maglione

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-019-09471-7

Copy DOI

Journal: Critical Criminology	Publication Date: Oct 31, 2019
Citations: 11	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Edinburgh Napier University

Abstract

The electronic monitoring (EM) of offenders is a subject that has been researched widely within criminology. Theoretical engagement with this instrument has been limited, however. The criminological literature, in fact, has focused primarily on empirical assessments of EM’s financial and technical aspects, as well as on the legal implications of EM and its impact on reoffending. Against this backdrop, this article provides a critical examination of EM, focussing on how policy construes this penal measure, using Scotland as an example. In addition, drawing on Foucault’s notion of governmentality, this article explores and problematizes the political logics (neoliberal, nationalist and techno-communitarian) which inform EM policy in the context of Scotland. The final section shifts the focus from exposing the political milieu within which EM policy emerges to contesting its possible effects, thereby extending the political critique of EM policy. The overarching aim is to contribute toward a nuanced political assessment of EM, while presenting directions for future engagement with this subject.

Highlights

Most of the criminological literature on the electronic monitoring (EM) of offenders centers on its financial and technical implications, its historical roots and its impact on reoffending, as well as on its place within criminal justice systems across the world (Bartels and Martinovic 2017)
This article rests on the broader premise that penal policy is a political device in that it seeks to “act upon the possibilities of action of other people” (Foucault 1982: 341) and that neglecting this political dimension equates with committing the “original sin of criminological positivism” (Matza 1969: 143)
This article has attempted to map how EM is represented in recent Scottish penal policy and to make sense of it by reconstructing its political dimension

Summary

Introduction

Most of the criminological literature on the electronic monitoring (EM) of offenders centers on its financial and technical implications, its historical roots and its impact on reoffending, as well as on its place within criminal justice systems across the world (Bartels and Martinovic 2017). Can best be understood in terms of managing costs and controlling dangerous populations rather than social or personal transformation.” Garland (2001: 4, 131) included EM within the fluid range of “highly volatile” policy developments of late modernity, which work as “non-adaptive” responses to the new “predicament of crime control.” These studies offer important insights into the historical emergence of EM and its role within the changing landscape of Western penality. A critical account of EM policy, targeting its political dimension, could help us to appreciate more fully the functions of this instrument, complementing (and to some extent challenging) the existing research on it From this perspective, this article generates a theoretically informed policy analysis of EM in Scotland today. It puts forth an original case study on the paradoxical melange of political rationalities driving penal policymaking, whose significance may stretch well beyond British borders

Methodology

Conclusions