ABSTRACT
Panopticon (from the Greek meaning “all seeing”) was a concept coined by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) in his book Panopticon (1787). The unique, utopian, and imaginative quality of Bentham’s proposal has given it a special place in the early history of criminological thought. Bentham was a genius, having graduated from Oxford University at the age of twelve. Even though he had earned a master’s degree in law at Oxford, he was far more interested in practical public policy and particularly reform of the criminal justice system.
