Economic sanctions in criminal justice: Purposes, effects, and implications

In this article, the authors present a framework for considering five different economic sanctions: restitution, costs, fees, fines, and forfeiture. The intended purposes of these sanctions are described, and the research on the imposition of these sanctions is reviewed, particularly the extent to which offenders are likely to pay these court-ordered amounts and the effect of economic sanctions on recidivism. Four specific problems with economic sanctions are presented: setting the amounts of the sanctions, ensuring payment, setting priorities among different sanctions, and defining the roles of probation officers in the monitoring of payment.