Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Bristol University Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

14 Mass Monitoring: The Role of Big Data in Tracking Individuals Convicted of Sex Crimes

  • and

Abstract

In the United States, compared to persons convicted of violent, property or white-collar crimes, individuals convicted of sex crimes are arguably one of the most highly monitored groups of offenders in contemporary times. While historically this was not always the case, sensationalized media accounts of high-profile sexual assault-homicide cases, particularly those committed against children, changed the sociolegal landscape—from one of treatment amenability to one of punishment and deterrence (Sutherland, 1950; Jenkins, 1998). As a result, scrutiny of these individuals by lawmakers, criminal justice actors, and the public has continued to intensify over time. This level of scrutiny, in combination with new ways of managing these individuals’ access to or restriction from social spaces, spurred on by media narrative, public outcry, and reactionary policy making, led to numerous changes in law (Jenkins, 1998; Lynch, 2002; Sample & Kadleck, 2008; Budd & Mancini, 2017). Legislation crafted to monitor and track these individuals in communities started to proliferate and has become institutionalized at both the federal and state level (Jenkins, 1998; Lynch, 2002; Sample & Kadleck, 2008). A key aspect to implement this legislation was to leverage technology in conjunction with personnel power (e.g. law enforcement) to accomplish these legislative aims.

Digital technology, such as databases to prevent, respond to, and investigate crimes, and technological monitoring, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, has played an ever-increasing role in criminal justice work (Eisenberg, 2017).

Abstract

In the United States, compared to persons convicted of violent, property or white-collar crimes, individuals convicted of sex crimes are arguably one of the most highly monitored groups of offenders in contemporary times. While historically this was not always the case, sensationalized media accounts of high-profile sexual assault-homicide cases, particularly those committed against children, changed the sociolegal landscape—from one of treatment amenability to one of punishment and deterrence (Sutherland, 1950; Jenkins, 1998). As a result, scrutiny of these individuals by lawmakers, criminal justice actors, and the public has continued to intensify over time. This level of scrutiny, in combination with new ways of managing these individuals’ access to or restriction from social spaces, spurred on by media narrative, public outcry, and reactionary policy making, led to numerous changes in law (Jenkins, 1998; Lynch, 2002; Sample & Kadleck, 2008; Budd & Mancini, 2017). Legislation crafted to monitor and track these individuals in communities started to proliferate and has become institutionalized at both the federal and state level (Jenkins, 1998; Lynch, 2002; Sample & Kadleck, 2008). A key aspect to implement this legislation was to leverage technology in conjunction with personnel power (e.g. law enforcement) to accomplish these legislative aims.

Digital technology, such as databases to prevent, respond to, and investigate crimes, and technological monitoring, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, has played an ever-increasing role in criminal justice work (Eisenberg, 2017).

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Notes on Contributors viii
  4. Foreword xvii
  5. Introduction: The Ultramodern Age of Criminology, Control Societies and ‘Dividual’ Justice Policy 1
  6. Theories, Theorists and Theoretical Perspectives
  7. The ‘Risk’ Society Thesis and the Culture(s) of Crime Control 17
  8. The Security Society: On Power, Surveillance and Punishments 43
  9. Pre-Crime and the ‘Control Society’: Mass Preventive Justice and the Jurisprudence of Safety 63
  10. The Negation of Innocence: Terrorism and the State of Exception 81
  11. Institutions, Organizations and the Surveillance Industrial Complex
  12. Visions of the Pre-Criminal Student: Reimagining School Digital Surveillance 105
  13. Commodification of Suffering 127
  14. Surveillance, Substance Misuse and the Drug Use Industry 155
  15. The Politics of Actuarial Justice and Risk Assessment 179
  16. Dataveillance, Governance and Policing Control Societies
  17. Cameras and Police Dataveillance: A New Era in Policing 203
  18. Theorizing Surveillance in the Pre-Crime Society 227
  19. Dataveillance and the Dividuated Self: The Everyday Digital Surveillance of Young People 249
  20. The Bad Guys Are Everywhere; the Good Guys Are Somewhere 269
  21. Systems of Surveillance, Discipline and the New Penology
  22. Supermax Prison Isolation in Pre-Crime Society 293
  23. Mass Monitoring: The Role of Big Data in Tracking Individuals Convicted of Sex Crimes 315
  24. Towards Predictivity? Immediacy and Imminence in the Electronic Monitoring of Offenders 341
  25. The Digital Technologies of Rehabilitation and Reentry 365
  26. Globalizing Surveillance, Human Rights and (In)Security
  27. Surveilling the Civil Death of the Criminal Class 389
  28. Big Data, Cyber Security and Liberty 409
  29. Drone Justice: Kill, Surveil, Govern 433
  30. Global Surveillance: The Emerging Role of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology 455
  31. Afterword: ‘Pre-Crime’ Technologies and the Myth of Race Neutrality 483
  32. Index 493
The Pre-Crime Society
This chapter is in the book The Pre-Crime Society
https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529205268-017

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Notes on Contributors viii
  4. Foreword xvii
  5. Introduction: The Ultramodern Age of Criminology, Control Societies and ‘Dividual’ Justice Policy 1
  6. Theories, Theorists and Theoretical Perspectives
  7. The ‘Risk’ Society Thesis and the Culture(s) of Crime Control 17
  8. The Security Society: On Power, Surveillance and Punishments 43
  9. Pre-Crime and the ‘Control Society’: Mass Preventive Justice and the Jurisprudence of Safety 63
  10. The Negation of Innocence: Terrorism and the State of Exception 81
  11. Institutions, Organizations and the Surveillance Industrial Complex
  12. Visions of the Pre-Criminal Student: Reimagining School Digital Surveillance 105
  13. Commodification of Suffering 127
  14. Surveillance, Substance Misuse and the Drug Use Industry 155
  15. The Politics of Actuarial Justice and Risk Assessment 179
  16. Dataveillance, Governance and Policing Control Societies
  17. Cameras and Police Dataveillance: A New Era in Policing 203
  18. Theorizing Surveillance in the Pre-Crime Society 227
  19. Dataveillance and the Dividuated Self: The Everyday Digital Surveillance of Young People 249
  20. The Bad Guys Are Everywhere; the Good Guys Are Somewhere 269
  21. Systems of Surveillance, Discipline and the New Penology
  22. Supermax Prison Isolation in Pre-Crime Society 293
  23. Mass Monitoring: The Role of Big Data in Tracking Individuals Convicted of Sex Crimes 315
  24. Towards Predictivity? Immediacy and Imminence in the Electronic Monitoring of Offenders 341
  25. The Digital Technologies of Rehabilitation and Reentry 365
  26. Globalizing Surveillance, Human Rights and (In)Security
  27. Surveilling the Civil Death of the Criminal Class 389
  28. Big Data, Cyber Security and Liberty 409
  29. Drone Justice: Kill, Surveil, Govern 433
  30. Global Surveillance: The Emerging Role of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology 455
  31. Afterword: ‘Pre-Crime’ Technologies and the Myth of Race Neutrality 483
  32. Index 493
Downloaded on 10.5.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.56687/9781529205268-017/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button