<random> search

In the past three decades, especially in the aftermath of September 11th, significant effort has been focused on developing technologies for aviation security. Security inspectors have considerable latitude to wave passengers into additional screening, and pat-downs are extensive and thorough. Immigrants, individuals from minority groups, and persons from specific ethnicities are targeted more, and accuse authorities of racial profiling and discrimination in both the "random" selection and the actual pat-down procedure, but are often reluctant to resist or file official complaints. Expensive, intrusive technologies at security officials' disposal reinforce an inherent power imbalance between authorities and passengers, and set the space for abuse of power. To date, the only tool at a target's disposal is a verbal or written account of their experience that may or may not be taken seriously. Moreover, existing airport security legislation is flawed and open to interpretation, and official standards used to define a breach are absent or lax. <random> search is an an instrument, a neutral, quantifiable witness to the screening process.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Bdeir, Ayah

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Chris Csikzentmihalyi.

• Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36152

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36152