Exploring the unintended consequences of implementing electronic monitoring on sentencing in Norway

ABSTRACT Electronic monitoring (EM) allows for the tracking of individuals under correctional supervision as they reside in the community. In Norway, EM was implemented as a ‘front-end’ diversionary pilot programme in 2008. As in Sweden and Denmark, EM was a programme managed by the correctional service, not as a sanction delivered by the courts. Quasi-experimental evaluations of the intervention suggest that EM led to meaningful reductions in recidivism and costs in Norway. However, the extent to which the availability of a new, non-custodial correctional programme had unintended consequences for judicial sentencing practices is less apparent. We employ the Focal Concerns theoretical framework to examine why the exercise of judicial discretion may have changed after the implementation of the EM programme. We find evidence of an increase in the number of qualifying sentences to prison at the expense of fewer non-custodial sentencing decisions, suggesting that judges modified their sentencing practices to facilitate EM participation. Results show that as many as 750 people might have been incarcerated rather than being given a non-custodial sentence because of the availability of the EM programme. Considering this increased scope of impact for correctional programming, implications for individual offenders and future reform are explored.