Abstract

Exploring nineteenth century criminology and current surveillance and biometrics, this paper examens stereotypes of criminality that were formed over two centuries and are still in use. If nineteenth century criminology set the stage, and the twentieth century elaborated the theory of criminal deviance, many of these ideas were successfully integrated into the core of biometrics. Since the late 1960s artists have sought to unravel the complexities of the gaze and to demonstrate that there is no simple, or even necessary connection, between seeing and knowing, or the observer and the observed. Scientific claims to objectivity have been contested in numerous ways - from historical investigations into the construction of photographic truth that reveal the underlying power structures and social practices - to efforts to redeploy the techniques of surveillance in quite different directions. Much of the early material focuses on the face or facial expression but it also takes in systems of body measurement that were popular well into the twentieth century. I shall look at the work of Lavater, Gall, Lombroso, Bertillon and Havelock Ellis before examining current biometrics.