France to use GPS tags to track domestic violence abusers. Experts unsure about effectiveness

The domestic abuse cases increased worldwide due to the lockdowns that were initiated in the country to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. The increase in domestic abuse cases forced the French government to think of fool-proof ways of keeping the abusers away from the victims.

In such a move, the French judges are now being given theoption of putting electronic tracking ankle bracelets on the domestic violence abusers which would have GPS tags and will track every moment of the wearer. These trackers will alarm the authorities if the abuser gets too close to the victims and willtrigger an alert to a private security firm which will warn the abuser to back off. If the abuser doesn't amend by the warning, the police will intervene and the abuser will be charged.

These GPS trackers have already been in use in the US and Spain, and have been tried in pilot projects in the UK and Australia. However, this is the first time such a rule has been implemented in France.

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The women's activists, however, are not completely satisfied with this measure. Some experts have pointed out the lack of security in this tag by claiming that if the abuser is short-headed and determined to attack, he/she will charge at the victim and also have the option of fleeing or hurting himself/herself before the police arrive.

Oren Gur, a policy advisor at Philadelphia’s District Attorney’s Office in the United States, told Reuters, that the effectiveness of this electronic bracelet depends on the usage of the data collected. The bracelet will be of advantage depending on whether the data is used primarily for gathering evidence or for launching real-time interventions.

If the main focus is building a judicial case, it can “lead to less active supervision or support”, he said. The effectiveness of the bracelet will amount to zero if the agencies collecting the data do not utilise it for real-time threats and warnings.

While many have claimed that the bracelet may not be useful in real-time, some assume that it might provide a sense of security to the victims who have to constantly worry about their wellbeing and the impending danger from their abusive partner.

“Victims generally like the sense of protection that it gives them... they report having peace of mind by virtue of being involved in these programmes,” Peter Ibarra, a criminology professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago told Reuters.

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Several researchers have also proved that men who are kept under observation by these GPS-tracked bracelets tend to stay away from their victims more than the men who are not tracked. These devices can alsohelp prosecutors bring perpetrators to justice. The same result was also concluded by a2016 study of the Spain’s University of Malaga that concluded that the electronic tags are successful in intimidating the attackers and prevent them from approaching their victims.

Research by the US National Institute of Justice (NIJ) also revealed that these systems decreasethe threat to public safety posed by criminal offenders serving their sentences in the community, rather than behind bars. The bracelet gives the offenders a chance to truthfully serve their sentence as they are assured that their moments are being monitored, and they cannot be falsely accused — a danger the African American community over the world faces.

These electronic tags look similar to a sports watch.a sports watch, are being rolled out in five jurisdictions under a pilot scheme, with an eye to being deployed across France by early 2021 as part of a wider government crackdown on domestic violence. The bracelets will be provided to courts in five cities in the starting but will be made available to all courts across the country by the end of the year.

The French President Emmanuel Macron also announced an increased and more inclusive training of police officers and has vowed to create nearly 1,000 new places in the emergency shelters that will provide aid to the domestic violence victims.