Surveillance and Social Control

What is systematic surveillance?

• Everyone watches everyone else.

• Thompson: Politicians fear media surveillance, which may uncover damaging information on them.

• Widespread camera ownership allows citizens to control the controllers by filming police wrongdoing.

What is liquid surveillance?

• All the ways that we are monitored, from number plate recognition and store cards to CCTV.

• Means that we are constantly monitored and aware of that monitoring.

• Refers to your digital footprint that can be used to infringe your civil liberties and protect you.

What is a panopticon?

• A prison design where the prisoner has their cell visible to the guards from a central position.

• The guards are not visible to the prisoners.

• This means that the prisoners behave as if they never know if they are being watched or not.

What is self surveillance?

• People monitor themselves and their behaviour due to the fear of being judged by others.

• This is particularly prominent in new mothers who fear being judged as bad mothers.

Who is the theorist for surveillance societies?

Lyon

What are surveillance societies?

• Modern society and technology have reached the point where our lives are quite transparent, and there is a lack of privacy.

• Our every move is monitored, but it has become so routine that we no longer notice or consider it consciously.

Who is the theorist for disciplinary societies?

• Societies which do not use physical punishment to control its people, but control the mind through surveillance.

• This has led to Carceral Culture (prison-like), where the disciplinary power has moved to other areas of society beyond the criminal justice system, such as teachers, social workers, and psychiatrists who monitor the population.

Who is the theorist for synoptic surveillance?

Mathieson

What is synoptic surveillance?

• Everyone is watching everyone else through the power of the media and social media.

• This can be through cameras, dashcams, and social media.

• This leads to greater self-surveillance.

• These items have also allowed society to exercise some control over the controllers, such as filming police wrongdoing.

Who are the theorist for post panoptical society?

Bauman and Lyon

What is a postpanoptical society?

• It is not just the thought of being watched but the knowledge that we are actually being monitored which controls our behaviour.

• Liquid surveillance means that we are constantly being monitored, from where we drive to what we buy.

Who are the thinkers for the Kilburn experiment?

Newburn and Heyman

What is the kilburn experiment?

• CCTV is as much a protection as an erosion of civil liberties.

• They were given access to Kilburn custody suites for 18 months.

• Saw that CCTV could be used by defence lawyers as much as by the prosecution.

• It can also be used to protect law enforcement against claims of brutality.

Who are the theorists for actuarial justice?

Feeley and Simon

Is surveillance a good form of social control?

• Helps reduce the fear of crime:

  • People feel less of a fear of being a victim of crime when they are aware of CCTV and other surveillance systems, as they believe that there is a greater chance of the perpetrator being caught, so they are less likely to commit a crime.

• Helps to fight against terrorism:

  • Using data mining and social media monitoring, links can be made between disparate terrorist groups.

• Provides evidence:

  • Both for the prosecution and the defence.

Is surveillance a bad form of social control?

• Oppressive form of social control:

  • A few watching the many allows the ruling class to shape the behavior of the working class.

• Limited evidence that it changes behavior:

  • Norris found that although CCTV reduced crime in car parks, it did little to reduce other sorts of crime.

  • Loveday and Gill: Burglars, shoplifters, and fraudsters were not put off by CCTV.

• Erosion of civil liberties:

  • Every action we take is monitored. There is no such thing as privacy, and our actions are used against us at any time.