Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Shahram Ebrahimi ¹
• Hossein Soltanifar ²

¹ Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

² PhD, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

Abstract

Research Problem
Contemporary criminal law has gradually shifted from a reactive model centered on completed offences towards preventive strategies designed to manage future risks. While classical criminal law recognizes criminal liability only where a person's intention has materialized in an external act or omission, contemporary criminal policy increasingly authorizes intervention before the occurrence of harm or on the basis of an individual's assessed likelihood of reoffending. This transformation has given rise to two distinct yet interconnected approaches. The first is anticipatory criminal justice, which criminalizes preparatory or inherently dangerous conduct to prevent the commission of future offences. The second is predictive criminal justice, in which intervention is directed primarily at the individual rather than at a specific criminal act and is justified by assessments of dangerousness and the perceived risk of future offending.
The Directive on the Electronic Monitoring of Repeat Theft Offenders reflects this latter approach. Rather than constituting a response to an offence already committed, it introduces post-release electronic monitoring as a mechanism for supervising individuals considered likely to reoffend after serving their custodial sentence. Although such measures pursue legitimate objectives of crime prevention and public security, they also raise significant constitutional and criminal law concerns regarding legality, proportionality, judicial oversight, and the protection of fundamental rights. The central issue addressed in this article is whether the Directive is compatible with the principles governing modern criminal law or whether it represents an unjustified expansion of preventive criminal intervention beyond legally recognized limits.
Research Objective
This study examines the legal nature of post-release electronic monitoring imposed on repeat theft offenders and evaluates whether it can legitimately be characterized as a security measure within Iranian criminal law. It further assesses the compatibility of the Directive with the principle of legality, constitutional guarantees of individual liberty, and the theoretical foundations of preventive criminal policy. In addition, the research evaluates the criminological assumptions underlying electronic monitoring, particularly its claimed effectiveness in reducing recidivism and promoting offender rehabilitation.
Methodology
The research adopts a descriptive-analytical methodology combining doctrinal legal analysis with criminological evaluation. Relevant constitutional provisions, statutory rules, and higher-ranking legal instruments governing criminal justice and crime prevention are analysed alongside the provisions of the Directive. The study further draws upon theories of preventive criminal law, security measures, predictive justice, and clinical criminology in order to evaluate both the legal legitimacy and the practical effectiveness of electronic post-release monitoring. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between preventive intervention and the principles of legality, proportionality, necessity, judicial supervision, and respect for individual rights.
Findings
The findings indicate that the Directive represents a significant departure from the traditional foundations of criminal responsibility by extending criminal justice intervention beyond the completion of judicially imposed punishment. Although the Directive refers to broader crime prevention policies and public security objectives, it establishes additional restrictions upon individuals who have already completed their custodial sentences without an explicit statutory basis authorising such measures. Consequently, its legal foundation appears inconsistent with the principle of legality, according to which any restriction upon individual rights must be clearly prescribed by law and imposed through judicial authority.
The study further demonstrates that post-release electronic monitoring reflects the logic of predictive criminal justice rather than conventional criminal punishment. Unlike anticipatory criminal law, which focuses upon dangerous conduct, predictive intervention shifts attention towards the perceived dangerousness of the individual and the estimated probability of future offending. Such an approach transforms criminal justice from a system based primarily upon responsibility for past conduct into one increasingly concerned with risk management and future behaviour.
From a criminological perspective, the effectiveness of electronic monitoring in reducing recidivism remains uncertain. While electronic surveillance may improve supervisory capacity and facilitate the monitoring of offenders' movements, available criminological evidence provides limited support for the assumption that surveillance alone contributes significantly to behavioural reform or long-term desistance from crime. Without complementary rehabilitative interventions, electronic monitoring functions primarily as a mechanism of social control rather than as an effective instrument of offender reintegration.
The analysis also identifies important deficiencies in the Directive concerning the assessment of dangerousness, the selection of individuals’ subject to monitoring, and the procedural safeguards governing implementation. The absence of transparent legal criteria creates the possibility of inconsistent decision-making, disproportionate restrictions, and arbitrary interference with individual freedoms. These deficiencies become particularly problematic where monitoring continues after the offender has fully served the sentence imposed by a competent court.
Conclusion
The study concludes that post-release electronic monitoring may constitute a legitimate security measure only where it operates within a clearly defined statutory framework that fully complies with the fundamental principles of criminal law. Preventive objectives cannot justify restrictions upon individual liberty in the absence of explicit legislative authorisation, effective judicial supervision, and adequate procedural safeguards. Accordingly, electronic monitoring should be imposed exclusively by a competent court and only through recognised legal institutions such as supplementary penalties, suspended sentences, conditional release, or other measures expressly authorised by legislation.
Furthermore, any legal framework governing post-release monitoring should establish precise criteria concerning eligibility, duration, scope of supervision, assessment of dangerousness, review procedures, and the rights and obligations of monitored individuals. Given that such measures directly interfere with constitutionally protected rights and freedoms, their adoption should occur through formal legislation enacted in accordance with constitutional requirements rather than by administrative directives alone. Only under these conditions can electronic monitoring contribute to crime prevention and the reduction of recidivism while preserving the rule of law, maintaining proportionality, and safeguarding the fundamental guarantees that distinguish modern criminal justice from unrestricted systems of preventive social control.

Keywords

• Electronic monitoring
• Post-release supervision
• Repeat theft offenders
• Security measures
• Predictive criminal justice
• Principle of legality
• Crime prevention
• Dangerousness assessment

Main Subjects

• Criminal law and criminology