Dr Janos Mark Szakolczai will deliver the inaugural CRISP online seminar in the 2026 - 2027 academic year. Janos will discuss his recently published book 'Onlife Criminology: Computational Capture, Peripheral Surveillance and Real-World Harm', which is shortlisted for the 2026 British Society of Criminology book award. The seminar takes place on MS Teams at 1300pm GMT on Wednesday 18th November 2027

Abstract

Surveillance increasingly operates beyond identifiable acts of watching. Smart devices, networked infrastructures, CCTV systems and augmented-reality technologies capture traces of everyday activity, often in the background and without clear moments of consent or interaction. Yet how should we understand the harms that emerge when ordinary life becomes a continuous source of data?

In Onlife Criminology: Virtual Crimes and Real Harms (Bristol University Press, 2025), Janos Mark Szakolczai develops an approach to understanding how digital technologies reshape the relations between everyday life, surveillance and harm. The seminar introduces the concept of capta—information taken rather than simply given—and examines what it reveals about forms of computational capture that extend beyond conventional understandings of surveillance. It considers how peripheral and ambient surveillance, the persistence of captured information, and its potential reuse can produce harms that are difficult to identify at the point of collection and even harder to contest afterwards.

By treating digital and physical environments as inseparable, onlife criminology shifts attention from isolated technologies to the wider processes through which everyday conduct becomes captured, classified and acted upon. The seminar asks what this perspective contributes to debates about surveillance, privacy, accountability and resistance, including how meaningful forms of agency might be preserved in environments where opting out of data capture is increasingly difficult.

Biography

Janos Mark Szakolczai is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Glasgow, where his research brings together digital sociology, Science and Technology Studies, surveillance studies and critical criminology. His work examines computational capture, technology-mediated harm, human–technology relations and digital resistance. He is the author of Onlife Criminology: Virtual Crimes and Real Harms (Bristol University Press, 2025), shortlisted for the 2026 British Society of Criminology Book Award. He was Principal Investigator on a Scottish Government-funded study of public-space CCTV in Scotland and Co-Investigator on Design Against Augmented Reality Crime (DAARC). His research connects conceptual developments in surveillance and digital criminology with empirical investigation, policy engagement and wider public debate.