Surveillance, Crime And Social Control

Surveillance has been part of the response to crime since at least as far back a Jeremy Bentham's proposed Panopticon, a prison intended to infuse prisoners with "sentiment of an invisible omniscience." In this work, the editors (U. of Sheffield, UK and Monash U., Australia) have selected 26 papers that explore connections between surveillance practices and state crime control in different historical, social, and political environments. The papers, originally appearing in the scholarly literature between 1985 and 2004, are presented in sections discussing social theories of surveillance; closed circuit television surveillance; undercover police surveillance; bodies, databases, and technologies; and surveillance futures. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Clive Norris is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield and Deputy Director of the Sheffield Centre for Criminological Research. He is one of the founding editors of the free on-line journal 'Surveillance and Society' and is currently researching the impact of new surveillance technologies on criminal justice. Dr Dean Wilson is a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Dean's research interests include Closed Circuit Television in urban Australia, the social impact of biometric technologies, histories of policing and media representations of crime.