Eternal Vigilance Inc.: The Satellite Tracking of Offenders in "Real Time"

The satellite tracking of offenders, particularly sex offenders, has grown in significance in the United States since the late 1990s. Some evaluations have been undertaken, but few of the larger theoretical questions it raises, as an aspect of surveillance and remote location monitoring, have been e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of technology in human services Vol. 28; no. 1-2; pp. 23 - 43
Main Author Nellis, Mike
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.2010
Subjects
crime control
electronic monitoring
Ethics
Monitoring
Monitors
Offenders
Real time
Satellite tracking
Satellites
Sex Offenders
Surveillance
Technological Innovations
time-space compression
Tracking
United States of America
Vigilance
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Summary:The satellite tracking of offenders, particularly sex offenders, has grown in significance in the United States since the late 1990s. Some evaluations have been undertaken, but few of the larger theoretical questions it raises, as an aspect of surveillance and remote location monitoring, have been explored. Drawing in part on the work of Manuel Castells and Paul Virilio and on the concept of "time-space compression," this paper appraises the significance of satellite tracking in the context of "the network society" and assesses its implications for supervising offenders in so-called "real time." It speculates on the different temporal experiences of monitors and the monitored and explores a dubious but possible future development in tracking technology: the power to inflict pain at a distance, forms of which were in fact considered by the those who first imagined offender tracking in the 1970s. For some offenders, potentially subject to lifelong satellite tracking, the specter of "eternal vigilance" is raised, and the paper concludes with ethical questions this practice provokes.
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ISSN:1522-8835
1522-8991
DOI:10.1080/15228831003763812