Crime Control, Prevention & Punishment - Surveillance | A-Level Sociology

welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video looking at crime control prevention and punishment focusing on surveillance surveillance refers to the monitoring of individuals both by agencies of formal and informal social control society has evolved surveillance has become an increasingly common way of exercising control over individuals this is usually achieved through

collating data on individuals including the monitoring of their movements their interactions with others and even their personal preferences tastes and affiliations this has become much easier with the advent of the digital age with the use of mobile and internet technologies being able to collate a broad range of data on individuals as a result surveillance can be used to

control people's behavior not only externally but also through forcing them to change their own behaviors for fear they're being watched one of the most prominent thinkers associated with the idea of surveillance is french philosopher michel foucault drawing on a range of influences including psychoanalysis foucault argued that the process of civilization has led to a movement away

from sovereign or physical punishment to a form of psychological control over individuals according to foucault this has occurred as society has developed more effective methods of punishing individuals by using psychological rather than physical means foucault illustrated this movement by drawing on the panopticon a prison designed by jeremy bentham the panopticon was a circular prison

with a central guard tower all of the cells in the prison faced towards this tower allowing the guards to see what prisoners were doing in their cells however prisoners could not see whether or not the guards were monitoring them and according to foucault this fear of possibly being caught led them to self-regulate their behavior so they