Surveillance Evangelism: Private Technology Companies and the Digital Futures of Crimmigration Control
March 16th, 2026
The article “Surveillance Evangelism: Private Technology Companies and the Digital Futures of Crimmigration Control” by Samuel Singler, published in Theoretical Criminology (Volume 29, Issue 3), makes a significant contribution to criminological research on surveillance and border control technologies. Singler analyzes private security companies’ visions of future technologies, treating them as genuine “surveillance imaginaries”.
The author introduces the concept of “surveillance evangelists” to describe how these companies do not merely market existing technologies but aim to persuade state agencies and the public of the desirability and plausibility of specific technological futures; futures that are contingent and contestable. Private security companies’ visions of digital borders across Africa contribute to the ideological normalization of crimmigration control, promoting digital scenarios in which criminal justice and border control technologies are fully interoperable. The notion of evangelism highlights both the speculative and ideological nature of these imaginaries and the postcolonial hierarchies that underpin the construction of technical expertise in the field of digital crimmigration control.
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