The Maximum Surveillance Society The Rise of CCTV

by Norris, Clive; Armstrong, Gary

• ISBN13: 9781859732212
• ISBN10: 1859732216
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Clive Norris, Department of Social Policy, University of Hull Gary Armstrong, Department of Criminology, University of Reading

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Part I: Images of Social Control	3	(88)
1 Introduction: Visions of Surveillance	3	(10)
2 A History of Photographic Surveillance and the Rise of CCTV	13	(27)
3 The Ever Present Gaze: CCTV Surveillance in Britain	40	(20)
4 The Selling of CCTV: Political and Media Discourses	60	(31)
Part II: The Unforgiving Eye	91	(114)
5 Introduction: Watching the Watchers -- Theory and Method	91	(7)
6 The Watchers and the Watched: The Social Structuring of Surveillance	98	(19)
7 Working Rules and the Social Construction of Suspicion	117	(35)
8 Communications and Consequences	152	(19)
9 From Images to Action: From the Control Room to the Street	171	(34)
Part III: Seeing the Future	205	(26)
10 Towards the Maximum Surveillance Society	205	(26)
Bibliography	231	(13)
Index	244