NCJ Number
209574
Date Published
2000
Length
201 pages
Annotation
This book deals with the various surveillance technologies that are increasingly used to observe the daily behaviors and activities of citizens in a society that supports and maintains democratic values and practices.
Abstract
The opening chapter notes that the electronic monitoring of people's activities and locations is no longer reserved for offenders under the jurisdiction of a criminal justice system; 67 percent of major U.S. employers engage in some form of electronic monitoring of workers; private surveillance cameras monitor people on public streets; California requires the scanning of a thumbprint for everyone issued a driver's license; in Massachusetts a company tracks the Web surfing habits of more than 30 million Internet users; and nearly 90 percent of U.S. manufacturers test workers for drug use. The author views such surveillance as cultural practices that constitute "meticulous rituals of power." In addition to profiling particular surveillance technologies, this book outlines what is distinctive about the characteristics of this postmodern social control. First, it tends to be systematic, methodical, and automatic in its operation. Second, it often involves citizen's bodies in new and important ways. Third, it involves a shift in the location of social control and surveillance and which behaviors are its focus. Finally, the localizing of social control in daily life increasingly brings more and more people under the watchful gaze of people who are interested in knowing and controlling what we do. The author offers suggestions regarding how citizens can resist efforts to bring more and more of our daily lives under the watchful surveillance of strangers who are interested in what we are doing. Chapter notes, 97 references, and a subject index