Countering surveillance: Using actor-network theory to understand how organised criminals subject to electronic monitoring avoid detection to commit new offences

• In Event: Sticking to the script? Innovations in organised crime reduction

Abstract

Criminal justice sanctions, like electronic monitoring (EM), use surveillance to monitor and control the behaviour of offenders. Claimed to represent a new era of crime control, research indicates that EM can sometimes promote desistance from crime. Nevertheless, data concerning how specific offenders, such as members of organised crime groups (MCGs), are impacted by EM are exceedingly rare. This paper examines ethnographic data from an article that shows how MCGs serving EM sentences adapt to being visibilised and continue organised narcotic distribution, leading to worse harm as their offending is displaced. It uses actor-network theory: an approach which asserts that objects have agency and can achieve/frustrate socio-technical goals to show that despite increased odds of detection, surveillance can become negotiable.

Authors

• Carl Berry, UWE

• Mark Berry, Bournemouth University