Surveillance, Punishment and Victimisation

What is surveillance?

monitoring behaviour for the purposes of control

When was sovereign power in place?

Pre - 19th century

What was sovereign power?

monarch controlled everyone and punishments were brutal and emotional

When was disciplinary power in place?

post 19th century

What is disciplinary power?

seeks to govern people’s minds and bodies through surveillance

What is a panopticon?

people don’t know if they are being watched so they behave all of the time which turns into self-surveillance and discipline

What is the aim of institutions?

impose self discipline and conformity through professionals exercising surveillance over people

Who came up with the idea of disciplinary power?

Foucault

What is the evaluation of Foucault’s theory?

still an emotional aspect to punishment, exaggerates amount of surveillance, Gill + Love found that CCTV actually put off very few criminals

What is synoptic surveillance?

members of the public can survey and report the police or other powers so surveillance power is spread across society

What is SouSurveillance?

being watched from people below you in societies hierarchy e.g. social media mointering behaviour of all celebrities

What is surveillance assemblages?

when cyber and physical data is curated about a person

What did Haggerty and Ericson find about surveillance?

multiple surveillance systems can be used to create a digital profile of a person who can then be predicted and controlled

What is the problems with surveillance through CCTV?

operators can make discriminatory judgements about who to focus on , Norris and Armstrong found that there is disproportional targeting of young black men

What are the two types of punishments?

retributions and reductions

What is retribution punishment?

justice and punishment for an offender who deserves it due to the crime they have committed

What is Reduction punishment?

aims to prevent future crime

What are the three kinds of reduction punishments?

deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation

What is deterrence?

trying to discourage future offending in the person and public

What is an example of deterrence policy?

‘Short sharp shock’ of Thatcher in the 80’s

What is rehabilitation?

changing an offender so they won’t do it again

What is an example of rehabilitation policy?

driving course for those who speed

What is incapacitation?

removes the ability for the offender to offend again

What is purpose of punishment according to Durkheim?

uphold social solidarity and express the outrage of society

What are the two types of justice according to Durkheim?

retributive and restutive

What is retributive punishment according to Durkheim?

emotive, severe and cruel that aims to soothe societies collective conscience

Where is retributive punishment usually present?

traditional societies

What is restitutive punishment according to Durkheim?

provides compensation for damages to people’s interdependence and restores society to equilibrium

What is the evaluation of the functionalist view of punishment?

restutive punishment existed in traditional societies

What do Marxists see as the point of punishment?

maintain social order and protect the ruling class, selective law enforcement allows them to criminalise the poor and prevent revolution, forcing people into low paying work through giving them a criminal record

What did Melossi and Pavarini find about prisons?

prison puts a price on people’s time and is similar to a factory with subordination and loss of liberty

What is the evaluation of the Marxist view of punishment?

ignores negative impact of crime on working class, ignores the violent or sexual crimes that need to be punished, functionalists argue that there is a consensus the murders and rapists need to punished

What is a victim according to the UN?

someone who suffers physical, mental or psychological harm, economic loss or impairment of their rights through acts or omissions which violate laws of the state

What are the characteristics of people who are most likely to be victims?

male, 19 - 28, ethnic minority

What are the three features of positivist victimology according to Miers?

identify factors of victimisation, focus on interpersonal crimes of violence, identifies victims who have contributed to their own victimisation

How can victims invite victimisation?

having a particular trait or presenting themselves in a certain way

What did Wolfgang find about homicide?

26% of homicide involved the victim triggering event leading to victimisation

What does positivist victimology focus on ?

social + psychological characteristics that make people more vulnerable than non-victims

What is the evaluation of positivist victimology?

ignores structural factors, can become victim blaming e.g. Amir finding that 1/5 rapes were ‘precipitated’ by the victims, sometimes the victim doesn’t have the ability to be aware of their victimisation e.g. in green crime

What is critical victimology?

focusing on the conflict theories and victimisation

What are the two focuses of critical victimology?

structural factors and the states ability to apply or deny victim label

What are the structural factors which can impact victims?

patriarchy and poverty

What did Mawby and Walk late find on victimisation?

victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness

How can the state control the victim label?

through choosing whether or not to prosecute as ‘victim’ is a social construct

What did Tombs and Whyte find about health and safety violations?

allowed the blame to be passed on to victims who suffered rather than the people in charge and that victimisation can be concealed in order to hide the crimes of the powerful

What is the evaluation of critical victimology?

disregards how victims sometimes brings it up on themselves, can’t explain crimes committed against the powerful, draws attention to the way ‘victim’ is a label and can be manipulated by the powerful

How many more times likely are homeless people to experience violence compared to the general population?

12x

What age are at most risk of being murdered?

infants under 1

Which age group are at higher risk of crimes such as violence and abuse?

teenagers

Which ethnic groups are at higher risk of victimisation?

ethnic minorities

Who is at higher risk of violent attacks and homicide?

men

Which group is at higher risk of DV, sexual violence, stalking and harassment and human trafficking?

women

What percentage of the population is the victim is 44% of crimes?

4%

What is the effect of being a victim of a crime?

disrupted sleep, feeling of helplessness, increased security consciousness

Who are indirect victims?

those close to the actual victims or a community

What is secondary victimisation?

further victimisation from the CJS system e.g. rape cases

What is the goal of situational crime prevention?

aims to reduce crime through limiting opportunity and through managing environments and increasing the risk of crime

Which theory about crime does situational crime prevention operate through?

rational choice

Which sociologists came up with rational choice theory?

Clarke and Cornish

What is an example of situational crime prevention working?

Port authority bus terminal redesigned and managed to reduce crime by 56%

What is the evaluation of situational crime prevention?

displace crime not stop it, doesn’t address white collar crime, assumes crime is a rational choice

What is the aim of environmental crime prevention?

uses a zero tolerance policy to prevent crime from taking root and crack down on any disorder

Why does environmental crime prevention work according to Wilson and Kelling?

it shows that people care about an area and prevents a spiral of decline

What are some examples of environmental crime prevention?

cleaning graffiti, no tolerance for petty crime, more police presence

What is the evaluation of environmental crime prevention?

targets the working class and ethnic minority, ignores white collar crime

What is the aim of social and community crime prevention?

dealing with the social conditions which leads to crime

What is the Perry pre - school program?

disadvantaged 3-4 year olds had a 2 year intellectual program and those children then went on to have lower rates of violent crime, drug and property crime

What is the evaluation of social and community crime prevention?

ignores white collar and corporate crime