‘The Panopticon (“all-seeing”) functioned as a round-the-clock surveillance machine.
Its design ensured that no prisoner could ever see the ‘inspector’ who conducted surveillance from the privileged central location within the radial configuration.
The prisoner could never know when he was being surveilled.
It was this mental uncertainty that in itself would prove to be a crucial instrument of discipline of surveillance.’ (Martin, M.J, 2018)
‘Therefore, modern CCTV systems can apply this panoptic power and coerce people to comply. Even if the CCTV camera hanging on the wall in a big box store is a fake or dummy camera, the shoppers do not know that it is fake. They dutifully comply to civility and refrain from pilferage because they are concerned that they are being observed. They feel the risk of getting caught. It is real and powerful within them. They believe that they will not get away with the theft of the store’s inventory. The dummy camera is applying a panoptic pressure demanding that they conform to societal rules.
Even if the camera is made from wood with a metallic-looking paint job and a built-in red light suspended from a bracket on the wall to suggest that it is recording their every action. It exerts a strong power over the would-be thief. This assumes that the perpetrator sees the fake camera and believes that they are being surveilled.
Even if the CCTV camera is real, the power that it imposes is the same as the dummy camera. Again, it is this mental uncertainty that in itself would prove to be a crucial instrument of the discipline of surveillance.’ (Martin, M.J, 2018)
I found this theory to be extremely interesting, I have thought about this idea for a few years as my mum and stepdad used to own a security shop and they would sell dummy cameras to people, it’s that idea that even if it was fake, people wouldn’t know so they would still feel as if they are being watched even if they are not.
I asked my boyfriend a few questions about this.
‘C - Do you think it would have been different if my stepdad had put a fake camera in our room?
J - Well it depends on if you knew it was fake.
C - Say we didn’t know
J - Then no, it wouldn't have made it different.
I thought this was interesting as obviously if we didn’t know if the camera was fake we would have still had that feeling of being watched, but he may not have got any footage of us getting changed or anything like this, so it’s a complicated topic but an interesting discussion. The thought that you are being watched is enough to stop someone from committing any sort of crime or anti-social behaviour as the majority of people are scared of being told off.