Net Widening
Definition
The expansion of formal state control that occurs when a diversionary or community-based measure draws in minor cases that would otherwise have received no formal response at all, rather than replacing a harsher disposition.
Related terms
- Circle Sentencing
- A community-led sentencing process, drawn from Indigenous justice practice in Canada, in which a judge, offender, victim and community members sit in...
- Curfew Order
- A court or supervisory requirement that a person remain at a specified address during set hours, commonly enforced with RF monitoring.
- Electronic Monitoring
- The use of radio-frequency ankle tags or GPS tracking devices to enforce curfews or geographic exclusion zones as a condition of bail,...
- Family Group Conferencing
- A restorative process, developed in New Zealand youth justice, that brings the offender's and victim's extended families together with professionals to agree...
- GPS Monitoring
- A monitoring method that reports a person's continuous or near-continuous location and can enforce exclusion and inclusion zones anywhere, not only at...
- Home Detention
- A form of custody or supervision served at a person's residence rather than in a correctional facility, usually monitored electronically.
- Radio-Frequency (RF) Monitoring
- A monitoring method that confirms only whether a person is within a fixed radius of a home base unit, used mainly to...
- Restitution
- A remedy ordered against the convicted offender, requiring them to return property, repair harm, or pay the victim directly, as opposed to...
- Restorative Justice
- A process in which the victim, the offender, and relevant community members meet with a trained facilitator to discuss the harm caused,...
- Victim-Offender Mediation
- A facilitated, voluntary meeting between a victim and the offender responsible for harming them, aimed at dialogue, acknowledgement of harm and a...
Explained in these topics
- Electronic Monitoring in Criminal JusticeThe expansion of state supervision to people who would otherwise have faced no supervision at all, rather than a genuine substitute for custody.
- Restorative Justice Mechanisms: Restitution and Victim-Offender Mediation