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All Ethical Issues

Predicting Criminals

Category: When It is Fundamentally Dubious

A news report in 2020 revealed that a county police department in Florida uses data from the local school district to keep a "a secret list of kids it thinks could 'fall into a life of crime' based on factors like whether they've been abused or gotten a D or an F in school." The story reports, "In its intelligence manual, the Pasco Sheriff's Office says most police departments have no way of knowing if kids have 'low intelligence' or come from 'broken homes' — factors that can predict whether they'll break the law. 'Fortunately,' it continues, 'these records are available to us.'" (Bedi & McGrory, 2020)

The Intelligence-Led Policing Manual states, "the system takes into account a student's grades, attendance, and behavior. Through DCF's Florida Safe Families Network (FSFN), we are able to identify juveniles who have had adverse childhood experiences(ACEs)... Last, our records management system can identify predictors of criminal behavior such as arrests at an early age, arrests for certain offenses, frequently running away, and a juvenile's social network.We combine the results of these three systems to identify those juveniles who are most at-risk to fall into a life of crime." (Pasco Sheriff's Office, 2018, p. 13)

Critics argue "the existence of the list may represent an illegal use of student data. Regardless of legality, they say, the list puts students and families at risk of being unfairly targeted before they've done anything wrong." They argue that "If a student's presence on this list ends up in their records long-term, it could affect their ability to be admitted to college or hired by employers" As well, "Police officers could also inadvertently use their perceptions of students who appear on the list to make decisions about how to adjudicate a crime that takes place" (Lieberman, 2020)

Examples and Articles

PredPol
"Predict critical events and gain actionable insight with PredPol, 'The Predictive Policing Company'" Direct Link

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Artificial Intelligence Is Now Used to Predict Crime. But Is It Biased?
"Historical data from police practices, critics contend, can create a feedback loop through which algorithms make decisions that both reflect and reinforce attitudes about which neighborhoods are “bad” and which are “good.”" Randy Rieland, Smithsonian Magazine, March 5, 2018 Direct Link

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