Surveillance Of Sexual Offenders

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Sociology 224 Research Paper: Question 1 Surveillance of Sex Offenders With the rapid growth of technology, society now has vast options of transforming the use of technology for an array of different implementations (methods). One such form of technology is the use of surveillance to monitor individuals, which has triggered numerous issues of intrusion into an individual’s privacy, and whether certain limitations, if any, should be set. “Surveillance involves the collection of information about the population for institutional and personal purposes. This definition is broad enough to advance discussion about surveillance beyond the usual fixation on cameras and undercover operatives” (Haggerty and Gazso 2005:170). The concept of surveillance can therefore involve numerous techniques, as will be discussed later within this paper. For the average law abiding citizen the issue of surveillance has different debatable point of views. One argument that can be drawn is whether an individual’s choice of privacy is being stripped with the advancement and placement of surveillance implementations (need to be reworded). Should this choice also be extended to those who commit serious deviant crimes? Offenders who are convicted of sex crimes are often considered some of the most dangerous to society, thus deemed in need of constant monitoring and surveillance when in the community. When dealing with issues regarding invasion of privacy, such as surveillance of sex offenders, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of implementing such a tactic. Although surveillance may not be beneficial in all scenarios, in relation to sex offenders, it is in the best interest of society to perform such a method. The term “sex offender” may generally be categorized in a variation of ways among society. For scholars Simon Cole and Jonathon Simon, the term “sex
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