CITIES, VIDEOCAMERAS AND VIDEO-SURVEILLANCE: STATE OF THE ART AND RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

In recent decades, the link between the images and public safety deepened in unthinkable dimensions. Security policies systematically incorporated closed-circuit television (CCTV) for monitoring public spaces as part of social control and situational crime prevention technologies. As a result of the expansion of videosurveillance, the academic interest in the subject began to grow noticeably, especially in Europe and North America. Latin America, meanwhile, has joined more recently these debates. This paper offers a retrospective of the works that have explored the use of videocameras from different theoretical and methodological perspectives. This reconstruction of the state of the art is organized from aspects of video surveillance that have been privileged: theoretical dialogue with notions such as social control, panopticism and biopolitics; effectiveness in reducing crime; the role of the cameras in delineating cities and social classification; the regulatory framework and the conflict with certain individual rights. The aim is to replace the internal debates that arise from this theme and explain some issues still barely addressed in the field of regional research.