] This brings up a first major point: legislators do not
] pass laws in the expectation that everybody who violates
] them will automatically be caught and punished. Rather,
] they often pass new laws in order to send a message -- to
] their voters (that they're doing something about their
] concerns) and to the criminals (that if caught they will
] be dealt with harshly). There is a well-known presumption
] that criminals are acting rationally (in the economic
] sense) and their behaviour is influenced by the perceived
] reward for a successful crime, and both the risk and
] severity of punishment. This theory is implicitly taken
] into account by legislators when they draft legislation,
] because in our current state of affairs most crimes go
] undetected and unreported. A panopticon singularity would
] completely invalidate these assumptions.

This article contains little material that ought to be new, although some of the links are nice. I recommend it because I said this exact thing before. People tend to believe you more readily when you can reference someone else who has already said it.