Topic: CCTV cameras, surveillance and the politics of exclusion
Further inclusions: This theoretical essay is to explore the crime prevention theories which underpin CCTV cameras and surveillance.
The focus of this criminological essay is crime prevention and the role of CCTV.
The argument of the paper will be that the deployment of open-street CCTV cameras in public spaces both change the relationship through which participants engage with a public space and exclude populations through a selective gaze.
The dominant sections of this paper should be:
• Introduction which should signpost the sections of the paper
• How CCTV cameras change how participants interact with a public space
• The politics of a selective gaze and how CCTV excludes populations
• How CCTV can be improved
• Conclusion which should briefly summarise key points and provide insight into how facial-recognition technology may either complicate or alleviate the issues raised within the paper.
INTERACTING WITH SPACE
• The deployment of CCTV cameras changes the relationship through which people engage with public spaces – this section should explore the anxieties people feel at the sight of a camera. This section is a theoretical exploration of does it mean to be watched and who is doing the watching.
• The second portion of this section should be an analytical exercise following on from ‘who is doing the watching’. There should be a comparison of the deployment of open-street cameras in australia and privately owned cameras.
• What does it mean to be seen by a privately owned camera walking through a residential area vs being seen by a camera situated within a public network?
• This section should drawn on Foucauldian theories of disciplinary power and how CCTV cameras are a crime prevention initiative that control people without physical force.
THE POLITICS OF A SELECTIVE GAZE
• This section will mostly draw on theory to explore who is being excluded by the gaze of CCTV’s; how this is being done; what the potential displacement effects are and whether displacement is an intended or unintended consequence
• This section should be of predominant focus and the largest section of the paper.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Draw on contemporary surveillance and criminological research to provide insight into how CCTV cameras can be improved. Reflect on the deployment of seven CCTV cameras along an entertainment precinct in St Kilda Victoria and whether CCTV is most effective means of addressing anti-social behaviour
CONCLUSION
• Should briefly summarise key points and provide insight into how facial-recognition technology may either complicate or alleviate the issues raised within the paper.
Theories that must be referenced:
• Agamben’s theorization of ‘Bare life’ and the homo sacar. This theory should be applied and explain those that the selective gaze applies too.
• Foucault’s theorization of disciplinary power and biopower – how power is deployed by the CCTV and how it can be conceptualised as a contemporary urban panopticon
• The politics of a selective gaze as theorised by Williams and Johnstone (2000).
