%0 Report %A Williams, Jenny %A Weatherburn, Don %T Can Electronic Monitoring Reduce Reoffending? %D 2019 %8 2019 Jan %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) %C Bonn %7 IZA Discussion Paper %N 12122 %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp12122 %X 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. %K reoffending %K prison %K electronic monitoring %K crime