Crime Prevention and Control: Surveillance Flashcards
What is surveillance
The monitoring of public behaviour e.g for the purpose of crime control
How many photos are shared on instagram every minute (2022)
66,000
Which postmodernist talks about different forms of punishment
Foucault
What are the two types of punishment according to Foucault
Sovereign power
Disciplinary power
What is Sovereign power
Pre 19th century
Inflicted punishment on the body to assert control - punishment was a spectacle e.g public exercution
What is Disciplinary power
Post 19th century
Govern body and soul/mind
Done through surveillance
WHat does Foucault say about the change from Sovereign power to Disciplinary
Only done because disciplinary power is more subtle yet effective way of control, not because we are more civilised as a society
What is an example of Disciplinary power
The Panoptican
What is the Panoptican
A prison design where the few police officer can view the many prisoners without the prisoners knowing
Prisoners behave as if they are always being watched and turn into self-surveillance and discipline
Control takes place inside the prisoner
What is meant by Dispersal of discipline
Forms of surveillance has spread to other institutions and wider society - seen in schools, factories, asylums
What is a positive evaluation of Foucaults theories on surveillance
It has prompted further research into the idea of an ‘electronic Panoptican’
What are 2 negative evaluations of Foucaults theories on surveillance
Overexaggerates the extent of control disciplinary power creates: Prisoners can resists the self control, despite being aware of CCTV, it is not always effective in preventing crime
Surveillance is not to reduce crime but it is ideological: it falsely reassures public about security when it does not prevent crime
What is the Synoptican and who came up with it
(Mathiensen)
In modern society everybody watched everybody such as media with politicians - Matt Handcock and Boris Johnson
What is Sousveillance
Wide spread access to cameras has resulted in surveillance from below - ordinary people can ‘control the controllers’ - Foucault failed to account for
e.g public filming wrongdoings - George Floyd
What is an evaluation point to sousveillance
Still have a hierarchy of surveillance - power still remains with those at the top (government censorship)
What is Surveillance Assemblages
We now combine surveillance technologies
CCTV footage analyse using face recognition
What is meant by Actuarial justice
A system which predicts who is more capable of committing crime so we can aim to stop it
Predicts who is going to commit crime
‘Social sorting’ - uses data from stats to categorise people based on ‘risk factors’ (CAGE) so monitored and treated differently based on the level of risk they pose
How do labelling criticise actuarial justice
Research shows CCTV operators use discriminatory judgements about who they should focus on
Found some groups are heavily policed so are more likely to be caught - explains disproportionate stop and search rates among ethnic minority groups
How do Marxists criticise actuarial justice
‘Categorial suspicion’
People monitored due to belonging to a certain group seen to pose a higher risk
Which perspective gives a positive evaluation of actuarial justice and what do they say
Realists - basing of stats is correct so it is useful as it would reduce the number of victims
