scholarly journals Predictive Policing for Reform? Indeterminacy and Intervention in Big Data Policing

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 456-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Predictive Analytics ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Trade Offs

Predictive analytics and artificial intelligence are applied widely across law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system. Despite criticism that such tools reinforce inequality and structural discrimination, proponents insist that they will nonetheless improve the equality and fairness of outcomes by countering humans’ biased or capricious decision-making. How can predictive analytics be understood simultaneously as a source of, and solution to, discrimination and bias in criminal justice and law enforcement? The article provides a framework for understanding the techno-political gambit of predictive policing as a mechanism of police reform—a discourse that I call “predictive policing for reform.” Focusing specifically on geospatial predictive policing systems, I argue that “predictive policing for reform” should be seen as a flawed attempt to rationalize police patrols through an algorithmic remediation of patrol geographies. The attempt is flawed because predictive systems operate on the sociotechnical practices of police patrols, which are themselves contradictory enactments of the state’s power to distribute safety and harm. The ambiguities and contradictions of the patrol are not resolved through algorithmic remediation. Instead, they lead to new indeterminacies, trade-offs, and experimentations based on unfalsifiable claims. I detail these through a discussion of predictive policing firm HunchLab’s use of predictive analytics to rationalize patrols and mitigate bias. Understanding how the “predictive policing for reform” discourse is operationalized as a series of technical fixes that rely on the production of indeterminacies allows for a more nuanced critique of predictive policing.

Officers' perceptions regarding the unexpected effects of body-worn cameras

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 390-402
Author(s):  
Jordan C. Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThroughout the last decade, a number of empirical studies have assessed the effectiveness of body-worn cameras (BWCs) among law enforcement agencies across the United States. The purpose of this paper is to examine officers' perceptions regarding the impact this technology has had on police-community relations, as well as the working relationship between police and other actors in the criminal justice system (e.g. prosecutors, jurors).Design/methodology/approachThe author conducted focus groups with officers (n = 89) from two local law enforcement agencies in California that had adopted BWCs in recent years. Participating officers discussed advantages and disadvantages they associated with BWCs, as well as how BWCs have impacted their relationship with the public and justice system personnel.FindingsOfficers recognized advantages to using BWCs, including the potential for positive changes in police behavior and the ability to protect officers against false citizen complaints. Officers also identified a number of disadvantages (or consequences) they associate with BWCs, such as the depreciation of credibility behind an officer's word and the impact of video footage on prosecutorial decision-making.Originality/valuePrior studies have gathered officers' perceptions regarding BWCs, but very few have assessed whether and how the use of this technology by law enforcement influences other actors within the criminal justice system. The findings from this study may prompt further empirical consideration regarding BWCs, especially with regard to whether police use of this technology significantly impacts citizens' trust in the police and how their use may impact prosecutorial and juror decision-making.

Criminal justice in the middlebrow imagination: The punitive dimensions of Making a Murderer

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel LaChance ◽  
Paul Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Crime And Punishment

Popular documentary representations of crime and punishment have traditionally tended to fall into two camps: programs that are critical of law enforcement agencies and those that are sympathetic to them. In this article, we show how programs that present themselves as critical of legal authorities can nonetheless reinforce the “law and order punitivism” that underlay the ratcheting up of harsh punishment in the late 20th century. In a case study of the popular documentary miniseries Making a Murderer, we show how this can happen when texts fetishize the question of a criminal defendant’s innocence, adopt a “good versus evil” approach to players in the criminal justice system, and perpetuate a procedural rather than substantive vision of justice. Arguments are supported by a close reading of Making a Murderer and illustrated by a line of discussion it inspired in an internet forum.

scholarly journals Role of Victim in the Criminal Justice System

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
MEERA MATHEW
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crime Victims ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
The Impact

The victims of crime are those who have formerly endured injury or are possibly suffering as an outcome of crimes having been committed. The direct family or dependants of the direct victims, who are harmfully affected, are also included within the meaning of the term “Victims”. The predicament of the victims does not finish with the crime but it persists. It may even increase, following the crimes; since they have to face the rigors of the actuality, such as deficient support system, dearth of social backing, and sense of anxiety. They also experience the intricacy of police inquiry, magisterial investigation and criminal trial. The impact of victimization on different kinds of victims due to different types of crimes has been varied such as physical, psychological and financial. Through this paper writer has endeavored to check the situation of victims of crime in India and the criminal justice system. It is apparent that the desolation of the victims have not been effectively addressed or even gone out of contemplation. Victims are disregarded, may, forgotten. The paper also stresses the need to provide support to crime victims. The author of the present paper has also recommended some of the imperative steps that are to be implemented by the law enforcement agencies in India to improve the position of victims in the criminal justice system.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Policing, and Risk Assessment for Law Enforcement

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Berk
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Competing Priorities

There are widespread concerns about the use of artificial intelligence in law enforcement. Predictive policing and risk assessment are salient examples. Worries include the accuracy of forecasts that guide both activities, the prospect of bias, and an apparent lack of operational transparency. Nearly breathless media coverage of artificial intelligence helps shape the narrative. In this review, we address these issues by first unpacking depictions of artificial intelligence. Its use in predictive policing to forecast crimes in time and space is largely an exercise in spatial statistics that in principle can make policing more effective and more surgical. Its use in criminal justice risk assessment to forecast who will commit crimes is largely an exercise in adaptive, nonparametric regression. It can in principle allow law enforcement agencies to better provide for public safety with the least restrictive means necessary, which can mean far less use of incarceration. None of this is mysterious. Nevertheless, concerns about accuracy, fairness, and transparency are real, and there are tradeoffs between them for which there can be no technical fix. You can't have it all. Solutions will be found through political and legislative processes achieving an acceptable balance between competing priorities. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 4 is January 13, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Epistemologies of predictive policing: Mathematical social science, social physics and machine learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395172110031
Author(s):  
Jens Hälterlein
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Social Physics ◽  
The Status ◽  
Insight Into

Predictive policing has become a new panacea for crime prevention. However, we still know too little about the performance of computational methods in the context of predictive policing. The paper provides a detailed analysis of existing approaches to algorithmic crime forecasting. First, it is explained how predictive policing makes use of predictive models to generate crime forecasts. Afterwards, three epistemologies of predictive policing are distinguished: mathematical social science, social physics and machine learning. Finally, it is shown that these epistemologies have significant implications for the constitution of predictive knowledge in terms of its genesis, scope, intelligibility and accessibility. It is the different ways future crimes are rendered knowledgeable in order to act upon them that reaffirm or reconfigure the status of criminological knowledge within the criminal justice system, direct the attention of law enforcement agencies to particular types of crimes and criminals and blank out others, satisfy the claim for the meaningfulness of predictions or break with it and allow professionals to understand the algorithmic systems they shall rely on or turn them into a black box. By distinguishing epistemologies and analysing their implications, this analysis provides insight into the techno-scientific foundations of predictive policing and enables us to critically engage with the socio-technical practices of algorithmic crime forecasting.

scholarly journals How criminal courts blend punitive ends with immigration control aims: The decision-making process of the discretionary prosecution provision to authorise an administrative expulsion

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Byron Villagómez Moncayo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Immigration Control

The involvement of the criminal justice system in immigration control is nowadays a global phenomenon that has called the attention of academics and practitioners. The Spanish legal regime has not been immune to this occurrence, encompassing a series of situations in which criminal courts are required to make decisions that can have significant implications upon immigration law enforcement. One of the most noteworthy provisions in this regard is that by which criminal courts are allowed to exercise discretionary prosecution to authorise the administrative expulsion of a prosecuted foreigner (Art. 57.7 Aliens Act). Drawing on focused observation of a court setting and semi-structured interviews with judges, prosecutors, clerks, court personnel and defence attorneys, the main findings of this paper hover around the idea that expulsion is a court’s culturally constructed punishment, defined more by the meanings attributed to it by court actors than by its formal legal categorisation.

scholarly journals The Application Of Justice Principles Of Rapid Simple Fee In Criminal Justice System In The State Court (Case Study in State court of Pati)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 609
Author(s):  
Lailatul Nur Hasanah ◽  
Sri Endah Wahyuningsih
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
State Court ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Mutual Cooperation

This study aims to determine and analyze the application of the principle of simple justice Rapid Simple Fee in the criminal justice system in the State court of Pati. As well as to identify and explain the barriers and solutions simple application of the principle of justice Rapid Simple Fee in the judicial system in State court of Pati. And to identify and explain the contribution principle is simple justice Rapid Simple Fee in the criminal justice system to reform the criminal justice system in the future. This study uses empirical juridical approach to analysis of the application of the principle of judicial issues simple, quick and inexpensive in the criminal justice system in the State court of Pati. Specifications research is descriptive analysis. With data collection techniques are primary and secondary data and research literature, analyzed using qualitative. The problem is analyzed with the theory of law enforcement and progressive legal theory. The results of this study showed that every judge shall comply with the laws that have been set ie power Act No. 48 of 2009 and Act No. 8 of 1981. Constraints in principle to simple justice Rapid Simple Fee is the human resources of the apparatus law enforcement, lack law enforcement and courtroom facilities, absence of the parties or witnesses. The solution is to determine the court calendar, giving sanction to the litigants or witnesses who have been called State court of Pati. Contributions in future expected law enforcement qualified for handling the case, mutual cooperation between law enforcement agencies and is able to imitate the criminal justice system in developed countries such as settling disputes out of court with mediation mechanism penal (penal mediation), restorative justice, diversion in juvenile justice and other forms that thrive in the community. It is considered necessary as part of the criminal law reform. Contributions in future expected law enforcement qualified for handling the case, mutual cooperation between law enforcement agencies and is able to imitate the criminal justice system in developed countries such as settling disputes out of court with mediation mechanism penal (penal mediation), restorative justice, diversion in juvenile justice and other forms that thrive in the community. It is considered necessary as part of the criminal law reform. Contributions in future expected law enforcement qualified for handling the case, mutual cooperation between law enforcement agencies and is able to imitate the criminal justice system in developed countries such as settling disputes out of court with mediation mechanism penal (penal mediation), restorative justice, diversion in juvenile justice and other forms that thrive in the community. It is considered necessary as part of the criminal law reform.Keywords: Principle of Simple Justice, Rapid Simple Fee In Criminal Justice System in Pati Court

The Ohio Data Story in Three Part

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-239
Author(s):  
Sara Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The People ◽  
Administration Of Justice ◽  
Data Platform

The complex, intricate process of felony sentencing in Ohio makes ensuring clear, comprehendible sentences of the utmost import for the administration of justice and promoting confidence in the system. As such, for more than a year, the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission worked with justice system partners to develop a package of uniform felony sentencing documents that prescribe the most clear and concise, minimum language required to comply with Criminal Rule 32 and existing case law and establishes standardized, common data essential for identifying relationships and trends common to all felony courts. The adoption of the package of felony sentencing documents is the first step to begin standardized, aggregate felony sentencing data collection in Ohio—the Ohio Sentencing Data Platform. Sentencing data provide opportunities for robust research, including the ability to parse comparative data between counties, recognizing that community standards can drive law enforcement, prosecution, and sentencing decision-making. The Ohio Sentencing Data Platform will improve information about the people we are trying to help in the criminal justice system and has been met with enthusiastic interest and support from judges and courts throughout the state. Our modest, incremental path will ultimately yield high dividends in building public trust in criminal justice processes and outcomes. At the same time, without fiscal or administrative burden, it will help give judges and decision- makers access to the best information available to perform their public service duty in the most impactful way.

The Police Informer/Handler Relationship: Is it Really Unique?

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Billingsley
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Police Service ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Veil ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

The use of informers by the police service in the UK has been the subject of recent research, even though the police service in this country has been protective towards this particular investigative method. It has been revealed from this research that there is a common assumption that the use of informers is quite unique among police relationships. This paper examines whether in fact the relationship between an informer and the police is really that unique, or whether it is the secrecy which surrounds it that provokes such an assumption. The paper relies heavily on a comparison with other relationships, starting with typical professional partnerships, then examining other police relationships. The factors which emerge from these relationships have been compared to police/informer relationships to determine how dissimilar they are. The paper suggests there are in fact many similarities between a police/ informer relationship and other professional partnerships, and concludes that it is probably the secrecy which the police have maintained that has created the assumption that the relationship is unique. It is suggested by the author that if the police/informer relationship became more transparent and accountable then this may lead to law enforcement agencies being less able to hide behind the veil of secrecy, which may help the concept of openness within the criminal justice system.

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