Surveillance, Technology, and Social Interaction: On the Importance of Casework

• In Event: Approaches to Offender Surveillance in Corrections

Abstract

Approaches to the study of electronic monitoring suffer from lack of attention to the role of interpretation in the construction of the “problems” and populations subjected to surveillance. Emphasis is given to the impact, proliferation, and ubiquity of technology-based systems, marginalizing the continued relevance of traditional approaches to supervision, especially inasmuch as surveillance is implemented through different styles of casework. Drawing from extant fieldwork-based research conducted with personnel using electronic monitoring in the UK, and a multi-site study of personnel utilizing GPS pre-trial in domestic violence cases in the US, a comparative analysis is offered to illustrate how community corrections may be differentially attuned to the role of interpretation in implementing surveillance technologies with “problem populations.” The importance of surveillance as a socially interactive process is highlighted and distinguished from ambient monitoring of environments with data banking technologies.

Authors

• Peter Ibarra, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Oren M. Gur, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Edna Erez, University of Illinois at Chicago