Surveillance Closed Circuit Television And Social Control

The rise of CCTV camera surveillance in Britain has been dramatic. Practically every major city now boasts a CCTV system aimed at, among other things, preventing, detecting and reducing the fear of crime. Increasingly these developments are mirrored in villages, shopping malls, residential estates, transport systems, schools and hospitals throughout the country. In short, for the majority of citizens it is now impossible to avoid being monitored and recorded as we move through public space. Surveillance, CCTV and Social Control represents the first systematic attempt to account for this phenomenon. It brings together leading researchers from the fields of anthropology, criminology, evaluation, geography, sociology and urban planning to explore the development, impact and implications of CCTV surveillance. Accordingly attention is directed to a number of key questions. How does CCTV fit with the trends of late modernity? Does CCTV reduce crime or merely shift it elsewhere? How should CCTV be evaluated? What is the significance of CCTV for women's safety? How adequate is the regulation of CCTV? In the light of recent technological developments what is the future of CCTV surveillance?

There are now thousands of CCTV surveillance cameras monitoring public space in British cities. Surveillance, CCTV and Social Control explores the social and criminological implications of the rise of the mass surveillance society.

Post 9/11 the need for an expansion of surveillance and greater expenditure on surveillance capabilities has been argued for by government and industry to help combat terrorism. This has been coupled with increasing incorporation of surveillance technologies into the routine practice of criminal justice. This important collection draws together key contemporary writings to explore how the surveillance gaze has been directed in the name of crime control. Key issues include theories on surveillance, CCTV, undercover police surveillance, bodies databases and technologies, and surveillance futures. It will be an essential collection for law librarians and criminologists.

This book reports the result of research carried out in a busy London police station on the role and impact of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the management and surveillance of suspects - the most thorough example of the use of CCTV by the police in the world. It focuses on the use of CCTV in a very different environment to that in which its impact has previously been studied, and draws upon the analysis of CCTV footage, suspects' backgrounds and extensive interviewing of both police officers and suspects. The research is situated in the context of concerns about the human rights implications of the use of CCTV, and challenges criminological and social theory in its conceptualisation of the role of their police, their governance and the use of CCTV. It raises key questions about both the future of policing and the treatment of suspects in custody. A key theme of this book is the need to move away from a narrow focus on the negative, intrusive face of surveillance: as this study demonstrates, CCTV has another 'face' - one that potentially watches and protects. Both 'faces' need to be examined and analysed simultaneously in order to understand the impact and implications of electronic surveillance.

Post 9/11 the need for an expansion of surveillance and greater expenditure on surveillance capabilities has been argued for by government and industry to help combat terrorism. This has been coupled with increasing incorporation of surveillance technologies into the routine practice of criminal justice. This important collection draws together key contemporary writings to explore how the surveillance gaze has been directed in the name of crime control. Key issues include theories on surveillance, CCTV, undercover police surveillance, bodies databases and technologies, and surveillance futures. It will be an essential collection for law librarians and criminologists.

The use of Closed-Circuit Television, or CCTV, has dramatically increased over the past decade, but its presence is often so subtle as to go unnoticed. Should we unthinkingly accept that increased surveillance is in the public's best interests, or does this mean that ‘Big Brother' is finally watching us? This book asks provocative questions about the rise of the maximum surveillance society. Is crime control the principal motivation behind increased surveillance or are the reasons more complex? Does surveillance violate peoples' right of privacy? Who gets surveilled and why? What are its implications for social control? Does surveillance actually reduce crime? What will developments in technology mean for the future of surveillance? What rights do individuals under surveillance have? How is the information gathered through CCTV used by the authorities?Based on extensive fieldwork on automated surveillance in Britain over a two-year period, this book not only attempts to answer these vexing questions, but also provides a wealth of detailed information about the reasoning behind and effects of social control.

This edited collection reports the results of a comparative study of video surveillance/CCTV in Germany, Poland, and Sweden. It investigates how video surveillance as technologically mediated social control is affected by national characteristics, with a specific concern for recent political history. The book is motivated by asking what makes video surveillance "tick" in three very different cultural settings, two of which (Poland and Sweden) are virtually unexplored in the literature on surveillance. The selection of countries is motivated by an interest in societies with recent experiences of authoritarianism, and how they respond to the global trend towards intensified technical means of control. With thorough empirical studies, the book constitutes an important contribution to security studies, surveillance studies, and post-communist area studies.

This book reports the result of research carried out in a busy London police station on the role and impact of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the management and surveillance of suspects - the most thorough example of the use of CCTV by the police in the world. It focuses on the use of CCTV in a very different environment to that in which its impact has previously been studied, and draws upon the analysis of CCTV footage, suspects' backgrounds and extensive interviewing of both police officers and suspects. The research is situated in the context of concerns about the human rights implications of the use of CCTV, and challenges criminological and social theory in its conceptualisation of the role of their police, their governance and the use of CCTV. It raises key questions about both the future of policing and the treatment of suspects in custody. A key theme of this book is the need to move away from a narrow focus on the negative, intrusive face of surveillance: as this study demonstrates, CCTV has another 'face' - one that potentially watches and protects. Both 'faces' need to be examined and analysed simultaneously in order to understand the impact and implications of electronic surveillance.