The Rise of the United States as a “Surveillance Superpower”: Pre-crime, New Assemblages of Power, and State Corporate Crime

• In Event: Pre-Crime: Preempting Suspects at the Temporal Border

Abstract

Concern with U.S. surveillance has been dramatically heightened worldwide by the information provided by Edward Snowden, an employee of a private contractor hired to engage in surveillance by the U.S. government. In this paper, we examine a key aspect of Snowden’s revelations; the central role private contractors and private firms have played in the growth of the U.S. as a surveillance superpower. Employing insights from McCulloch and Pickering (2012) regarding “pre-crime” and risk reduction, as well as theoretical insights from Sassen (2008) and Mezzadra and Nielson (2013) about the changing character of power in a globalized world, we examine how the blurring of the border between “public” and “private” in contemporary surveillance practices reassembles power, exacerbates inequalities and conflicts, and heightens the democratic deficit. Further, we argue that the U.S.-based public/private surveillance architecture revealed by Snowden might be best understood as a form of “state-corporate crime” and urge criminologists to devote greater attention to this complex new justice challenge.

Authors

• Colin Burke, Northern Arizona University

• Nancy Wonders, Northern Arizona University