NCJ Number
190283
Date Published
2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This report presents findings on reconvictions for offenders who received curfew orders with electronic monitoring during the second year of trials, in the British jurisdictions of Norfolk, Greater Manchester, and Reading between July 1996 and June 1997.
Abstract
Reconviction rates were examined for 261 out of the 375 offenders originally sentenced. The study found that over 80 percent of offenders completed their curfew order successfully, which lasted on average approximately 3 or 4 months. More than half the sample also served other community sentences alongside the curfew order. Nearly 73 percent of offenders were reconvicted for an offense within 2 years of being sentenced. Theft and violence were the most common categories for which individuals were reconvicted. The reconviction rate was no different from that of a comparison group of offenders who received community penalties other than curfew orders during the same period. Offenders sentenced to curfew orders with electronic monitoring tended to be male, in their mid-20's, and had been offending for approximately 8 years. Over 40 percent had previous experience of custody, and over 70 percent had received other community sentences. Very few offenders who completed curfew orders in England and Wales during the trials breached other community penalties applied with the curfew order, although this finding was not statistically significant. Higher risk offenders, such as those curfewed during the first 2 years of the trials, were likely to exhibit a number of problems directly related to offending, such as drug and alcohol abuse, unemployment, and antisocial attitudes. Any intervention designed to modify criminal behavior must address these factors in a structured way. 4 tables and 5 references