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Surveillance Theories - Coggle Diagram
Surveillance Theories
Foucault: The Panopticon
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The panopticon (all–seeing) – the prison design:
- Prisoner’s cells are visible to the guards from a central viewing point (Watchtower)
- Prisoners cannot see the guards and act as though they constantly are watched
- Surveillance turns to self – surveillance and discipline becomes self – discipline
Other institutions have followed this e.g. mental hospitals, army barracks, workplaces, and schools.
Panopticon is a design for a prison that allows for the constant surveillance of prisoners, prisoners are always wondering if they are being watched, the guards are able to watch the prisoners without being watched as the central watchtower which has blinds/Shutters
Principles of Panopticon:
1) Pervasive Power: the power exists through every part of the prison
2) Obscure Power
3) Direct Violence made structural
4) Structural violence made profitable
Edward Snowden: revealed the existence of secret wide-ranging info gathering programs conducted by the NSA
Key Idea: Foucault argues that people engage in self – surveillance. Surveillance has become important in crime control.
Evaluation
Strengths
Foucault’s work has stimulated research into surveillance & disciplinary power, especially the idea of the electronic panopticon
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Weaknesses
Foucault exaggerates the extent of control – Goffman shows how some inmates of prisons & mental hospitals resist controls
Surveillance may not change people’s behaviour as Foucault claims. CCTV may fail to prevent crime because offenders take no notice of it
Synoptic Surveillance
Everybody watched everybody – e.g. motorists can monitor the behaviour of others by using a dashboard of helmet cams.
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Feeley & Simon – see actuarial justice as a new form of surveillance, its aim is to predict and prevent future offending.
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