Tma01

With the help of one of the four chapters of DD208 film 1 ‘Surveillance: welfare, crime and society’, explore how surveillance can help us understand the entanglements between social welfare and crime control.

Surveillance has become more prevalent in England as technology has developed and made it both easier and cheaper to acquire surveillance equipment.   The reception to this increased surveillance by the general public has been mixed. It can be seen as a way to prevent crime and monitor safety, a key asset for property owners or vulnerable people. On the other hand it can be seen as an invasion of privacy and a way to single individuals out which not all welcome, a realisation of an Orwellian Big Brother state. This essay will explore these entanglements between social welfare and crime control throughout everyday life and how surveillance can help us understand them.
The general public want to feel safe when out shopping, walking in the street or having a drink.   Manned CCTV enables shopping centres to prevent crime, letting people feel safe, thereby improving social welfare.   Margaret belongs to a social walking club, she exercises in the mall, this encourages her to get out the house more. She feels safer in the shopping centre than in the local park because she knows there is a lot of surveillance and security staff watching over her and the other walkers (The Open University, 2014). Clair has a different opinion, she sees the amount of CCTV in the shopping centre as uninviting.   Clair says the surveillance makes her feel unwelcome and causes young people to socialise less. To Clair it seems that the security staff target her and her friends for observation because they are young.   She feels the security staff often stereotype young people by what they wear or by how many are in a group.   The contrast between the two perspectives is interesting especially as it highlights a potential difference in viewpoints based on age.
The White Rose Shopping Centre...