surveillance and social control

• synopticon surveillance means 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 - filming police wrongdoing
• liquid surveillance is all the ways that we are monitored from number plate recognition, store cards to CCTV means that we are constantly monitored and aware of that monitoring

  • digital footprint - used io infringe your civil liberties as well as protect you
• Panopticon means a prison design where the prisoner has their own cell which is visible to the guards from a central position however the guards are not visible to the prisoners

  • this means that the prisoners behave as they never know if they are being watched or not
• self-surveillance means people monitoring 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 a bad mother
• surveillance societies - LYON

  • modern society and technology has 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 it or consider it consciously
• disciplinary societies - FOUCAULT

  • societies which do not use physical punishment to control its people but control the mind through surveillance
  • this has led to a carceral culture (prison-like) where the disciplinary power has moved to other areas of society beyond the criminal justice system such as teacher, social workers and psychiatrists who monitor the population
• synoptic surveillance - MATHEISON

  • everyone is watching everyone else through the power of the media and social media
  • this can be through camera dashcams and social media
  • leads to greater self surveillance
  • these items have also allowed for society to exercise some control over the controllers such as filming police wrong doing
• actuarial justice - FEELY AND SIMON

  • new technology of power, not interested in rehabilitation but in preventing offending through the use of similar algorithms to insurance actuaries
  • airports use this to determine who to stop and search based on risk factors and profiling
  • to identities and classify groups based on perceived levels of dangerousness
• Surveillance is 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 - they believe that there is a greater chance of the perpetrator being caught so won't commit crime
  • helps to fight against terrorism - using data mining and social media monitoring links are able to be made between disparate terrorist groups
  • provides evidence - both for the prosecution and the defence
• surveillance is not a good form of social control

  • oppressive form of social control - a few watching the many allows for the ruling class to shape the behaviour of the working class
  • limited evidence that it changed behaviour - Norris found that although CCTV reduced crime in car packs it did little to reduce other sorts of crime - burglars, shoplifting
  • erosion of civil liberties - every action we take is monitored there is no such thing as privacy and our actions can be used against us at any time