With the Help of Examples Drawn from the Surveillance Film, Outline the Ways in Which Surveillance Is Used to Deliver Crime Control and Social Welfare.

With the help of examples drawn from the surveillance film, outline the ways in which surveillance is used to deliver crime control and social welfare.  

This essay will outline the way surveillance is used to deliver crime control and social welfare. Social welfare is considered to be looking after people whilst crime control is not just targeting law violations but is aimed at harmful behaviours (www.openuniversity.co.uk, 22/10/13).   It will outline the view that it is very difficult to separate crime control policies from social welfare along with the opinion that tension exists where the two clash giving way to which is considered must important. Inequality could suggest that surveillance as a tool is failing in its aim to deliver social welfare and crime control. People’s views on surveillance are briefly discussed .
Surveillance is not something new it is something which seems to have always been present in societies. The idea of looking out for each other seems to be something which people have a need for. However with the rapid advancement of technology it is something which we have got very good at (The Open University, 2013, Chapter 1). Simply put it is about the monitoring of people though collection of data and direct observation . It seems surveillance delivers crime control and social welfare on the premise of watching for protection whilst watching with suspicion .
A good example of this is safeguarding which uses surveillance as its main method to deliver protection to children whilst supporting parents. This is further illustrated through the example of the ‘Baby Cafe’. Helen Wright   provides an environment where mothers can call in with their babies to get advice and support thereby providing social welfare. They feel better for being supported and watched. At the same time Helen is also monitoring for any behaviour which could be harmful therefore protecting the child through crime control (The Open University, 2013, Chapter 2). In this...