Technology and Social Control

One aspect of modernization is the use of science-based technology in rule enforcement. In the ‘engineered society,’ an ethos of rationalization is seen in the application of means to ends. The events of 11 September 2001, and the war on terror have brought increased attention to the question, but the increased use of technical means for control reflects continuity rather than disjuncture. Six social control strategies are discussed and illustrated: target removal, target devaluation, target insulation, offender incapacitation, offender exclusion, and identification of offenses and offenders. In complex settings in a democratic society, relying primarily on technology to control human behavior has clear social and ethical limitations. The technology’s narrowing of focus may come at a cost of failing to see larger systemic contexts, alternatives, and longer range consequences. The complexity and fluidity of human situations makes this a rich area for the study of trade-off, irony, and paradox. There are some parallels to iatrogenic medical practices in which one problem is cured, but at a cost of creating another. Technical efforts to ensure conformity may be hindered by conflicting goals, unintended consequences, displacement, lessened equity, complacency, neutralization, invalidity, escalation, system overload, a negative image of personal dignity and the danger of the means determining, or becoming ends.