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18 Crime L. & Soc. Change 2 (1992)

handle is hein.journals/crmlsc18 and id is 1 raw text is: Crime, Law and Social Change 18: 1, 1992. Introduction Every so often academic books appear that help to shape or define the sensibilities and concerns of an age and that serve as powerful beacons for those that follow. The books on American character in the 1950s, on problems of poverty and race in the 1960s, and on feminism and the environment in the 1970s are examples. Their impact is partly based on offering new ideas and data. But it is also based on their ability to deal systematically and clearly with themes and issues that are in the air. They give shape to concerns that were felt and seen, but not well articulated, as well as introducing new concerns. They stimulate and direct research and offer new vocabularies and ways of thinking about familiar phenomena. The recognition that Gary T. Marx' Undercover: Police Surveillance in Amer- ica has received from peers, practitioners and the mass media suggests that it may become one such book. The book received a number of prizes, has been widely reviewed in academic and popular media, has been the basis for television and radio documentaries and has stimulated considerable research. A full translation or excerpts have appeared in many languages, including Japanese and Chinese. The book has struck a responsive chord in disparate audiences from social scientists to philosophers and from civil libertarians to law enforement agents. I had originally planned a review-symposium on the book. But as the number of potential contributors expanded, it became clear that there was the poten- tial to go beyond a review of this book per se to a broader forum for considering the questions it raises. The normative, scientific, and practical issues around surveillance, soft- and low-visibility control, information access and restric- tion, deception, and privacy and technology transcend any one discipline, profession or country. These social control themes are universal in the in- formation age and can only increase in importance as we approach the next century. It is vital that scholarly attention illuminate them. Alan Block Editor

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