British Journal of Criminology Advance Access originally published online on May 18, 2006
British Journal of Criminology 2007 47(1):100-120; doi:10.1093/bjc/azl026
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The British Journal of Criminology 47:100-120 (2007)
© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Making Your Home a Shelter
Electronic Monitoring and Victim Re-entry in Domestic Violence Cases
* Professor Edna Erez, Department of Justice Studies, 113 Bowman Hall, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA; eerez{at}kent.edu. Professor Peter R. Ibarra, 302 Maxwell Hall, Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA 13244, eerez{at}kent.edu
The development of bilateral electronic monitoring (BEM) exemplifies how shifts in the "culture of control" (Garland, 2001), including a focus on domestic violence (DV) victims emotional welfare and integration into proceedings, can alter abused partners everyday lives. As a protective strategy, BEM provides DV victims with an alternative to relocating to a shelter. The subjective sense of safety engendered by program involvement emerges gradually, as everyday environments are re-evaluated in light of an estranged partners absence; through social interactions with family members, friends, and justice agents; and as the understanding of what it means to be "protected" develops. The use of BEM technology to promote victim welfare rather than as a strictly evidentiary tool suggests that this expression of the new paradigm of justice is oriented toward victim re-entry into civil society.