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Is there an ethical justification for introducing 'PreCrime' (as popularised in the movie 'The Minority Report' (2002)) into the legal system, to reduce the incidence of crime and the suffering of impacted persons?

  • What are the ethical considerations for such a fundamental change? Is it practically possible to consider such an approach to crime prevention ?

  • Answer:

    This is a really intriguing question, especially given the all encompassing "culture of safety" we currently embrace in the U.S. I think if it were possible to predict crimes and then avoid them altogether by arresting "offenders" before the fact, we would probably do that here. We would also justify it on the very grounds that the questioner proposes: to reduce crime and suffering. As the questioner also notes, however, this does raise significant ethical concerns. I agree with that conspiracy statutes already exist, but those require some action in furtherance of the conspiracy in order to be enforceable. Merely thinking about, or even privately planning in your own mind to commit a crime, is not an offense. George Orwell's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtcrime would become a reality in a world where people could be arrested as a result of mere dhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divination of future events. The balance of power between the people and the State would be completely undermined, with the State holding complete power over the lives of the governed. We would likely be absolutely safe and absolutely powerless at the same time. This may sound like a fair trade to some, but think about the broader dimensions of this in terms of political and cultural change. The Founders of the United States, for example, would have been detected, arrested, and likely put to death before they even had the chance to begin discussing secession from Britain. It would be all to easy for a government to turn this power against the populace and quash all dissent before it even began. That, more than anything, would be the major ethical consideration that I would be concerned about.

Bob Cameron at Quora Visit the source

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An analogous concept may be the "Broken Windows" theory (http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/_atlantic_monthly-broken_windows.pdf) which motivated the NYC Mayor and police to clean up Times Square and make it economically viable (as well as in other cities). Foot patrols enforced orderliness as opposed to motorized patrols responding to more serious calls for service, they concentrated on “not violent people, nor, necessarily, criminals, but disreputable or obstreperous or unpredictable people: panhandlers, drunks, addicts, rowdy teenagers, prostitutes, loiterers, the mentally disturbed.” These are apparently the precursors to crime.

Dan Robb

There already is "conspiracy to commit" a crime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_%28crime%29 When it pushes the boundaries of ethics it is called entrapment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment

Aaron Leff

There are a lot of flaws with the vision of the pre cogs in the movie. For eg, why do they always see a successful and not see that the 'criminal' was stopped by the police before he/she could execute his/her criminal intention. Now, in the movie the pre crime unit was shut down because the visions of the precogs made the future definite (as too in the Dune books), i.e., free will was non existent in the future seen by them. Thus, the criminal didn't have the freedom to make the choice of aborting his/her action at the last moment. Thus, this pre crime process is unethical. But if we consider what scientists say about time travel, having information about the future will change the future instantly. Then there is also the theory of splitting of universe at every choice. So pre crime justice is not only unethical but also illogical and foolish.

Akshat Tripathi

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