Final writing 2

Essay Question:

‘The advantages of a “surveillance society” far outweigh the drawbacks’. to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Burglary, car theft, assault, drug use, drunkenness, and even decimation are unavoidable social evils in each country. These problems seem to suggest the crime and social control policy in both theory and practice and to be the reason of the exceptional development of technology and science such as CCTV, DNA databases, biometrics. The modern technology is a means of crime prevention and standard of measurement the level of crime for responsible authorities to govern society logically. The ‘surveillance society’ is absolutely supervised by a large number of cameras every where. A sophisticated technology connected to these cameras system can record the process of dangerous criminals’ transgression as un-refutable evidence. Some people consider that they obtain more benefit than drawback from a surveillance society. It partly explains for the Britain‘s goal of being ‘the surveillance capital of the Western World’ (Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, 2006). However, he also said that we were saturated in a world of surveillance. What did he mean “saturated”? So that the question is how much effective these modern technologies work in scrutiny society and whether so-called society is really proficient for the people or not. This essay will weigh up two aspects of a “surveillance society” in detail and answer the above mentioned questions.

Many people complain how much inconvenience they feel under ten thousands of cameras installed in public place such as: on the street, in supermarket, shop, car park, workplace...They have to be very cautious every time, every where and even at their owned home. Nevertheless, we must recognise that the social evils have been decreased significantly since the system of cameras is operated in residential areas (Survey 2002, Home Office). The more CCTV is installed, the safer they feel. Moreover, it is very beneficial in favour of companies who want to monitor their employees from a far distance to eliminate wasted time, cut necessary cost to do business more efficiently.

(320 words)

References:

1. Adam Harcourt (Webster), 2006, ‘Is business a real Big Brother?’, viewed August 10^th 2008, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5015826.stm>
2. BBC News Channel, 2007, ‘Home Secretary hails CCTV usage’, viewed August 10^th 2008, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6900807.stm>
3. Privacy International, 1997, ‘CCTV Frequently Asked Questions’, viewed July 31^st 2008, <http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-61925&als[the>
4. BBC News Channel, 2005, ‘DNA database Big Brother warning’, viewed July 31^st 2008, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4166559.stm>
5. Angela Spriggs et al., Home Office on-line report October 2005, ‘Public attitudes towards CCTV: results from the Pre-intervention Public Attitude Survey’, viewed August 10^th 2008, <http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/cctv/cctv43.htm>