The Draft of Assignment Two

The advantage of a ‘surveillance society’ far outweigh the drawbacks’ To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

It is generally agree that the percentage of crimes has increased continuously nowadays. According to a report released by the Division of Public Safety (Dailllini.com), the crimes of robber and sexual assault had increased 7% in 2004, also risen 6% in violent crime (BBC.com). In order to prevent the crimes, people have created a surveillance society; enable to observe the suspect behaviours, called CCTV. Since 1994, CCTV is used increasingly to police public morals and public order. Although some people consider that this kind of surveillance system lead people to feel uncomfortable, they do not want to be known where they are all the time. For example, average citizen is caught on CCTV cameras 300 times a day in UK (BBC.com) and they do not know how these organizations use this information. In this essay, I would like to talk about the advantages of observe system is more outweigh than the disadvantages which are mentioned above.

A common viewpoint is that CCTV did not decrease the rate of crimes; only 3% of crimes were solved by it (Guardian.com). However, some people argue that the CCTV has become an icon for security and politicians to prevent anti-social and undesirable behaviours, such as smoking, vandalism, and drunkenness. People would control their behaviours more when in front of cameras to earn respect from audience. In addition, the surveillance system is used to collect evidence by victims of domestic violence who conceal video cameras in their homes to protect themselves. CCTV also used in the kindergartens and hospitals to support covert surveillance of teachers and parents suspected of abusing children. Furthermore, Growth in the market of CCTV is estimated at 15% to 20% annually. Although the government has spent lots of money in it, the advantage is not only saving the money to train police but also reducing dangers for them. The budgets of police training and gratuity could be used on other construction.

Reference

Katie, H. Dailllini.com (2004), ‘Police reports show increase in crime’, 10, Jan 2004, viewed 2008, Aug 08, http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/

2004/10/01/News/Police.Reports.Show.Increase.In.Crime-738635.shtml

BBC.com (2005) ‘Violent crime shows 6% increase’, 20, Oct 2005, viewed 2008, Aug 08, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4359744.stm

BBC.com (2002) ‘CCTV: Does it work?’, 13, August, 2002, viewed 2008, Aug 08, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2071496.stm

Owen, B. Guardian.com (2008) ‘CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police ’, 6, May 2008, viewed 2008, Aug 08, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1