CRIM 2001 - Surveillance, Deviance & Crime

North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2016

The course information on this page is being finalised for 2016. Please check again before classes commence.

This course provides an insight into the field of surveillance studies from both a criminological and sociological perspective. Surveillance devices and practices are an increasingly familiar feature not only of crime control but also of everyday living. Data capture occurs as individuals break the law, shop, access services, browse the web, communicate and travel. As a consequence, personal information has become both a vital commodity and an exploitable resource for the wielding of power. Institutions seek to exploit such data to control `deviants?, customers and even those for whom they have a duty of care. This course takes as its starting point the theories and concepts prominent in surveillance studies and drawing upon key theorists, such as Foucault, Lyon and Haggerty, examines the extent to which these ideas offer insights into monitoring practices in late modernity. These insights are then further developed through a consideration of the broader political and economic pressures surrounding surveillance practices, including the possibilities for resistance. A range of surveillance technologies used by the state and other organisations to control both crime and the more mundane elements of everyday life will be examined throughout the course.

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