Projects / Programmes
PREVENTIVE (IN)JUSTICE: THE PREVENTION OF CRIME AND SOCIAL HARMS
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.07.00 |
Social sciences |
Criminology and social work |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.05 |
Social Sciences |
Law |
crime prevention, crime prediction, prevention of corruption, preventive war, social harm, artificial intelligence, consumerism
Researchers (12)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Over the past few decades, we have witnessed a major shift from the post-crime paradigm, which defines crime as wrongdoing that has to be dealt with post hoc, to a pre-crime paradigm, which regards crime as a potential risk to which we need to respond with pre-emptive measures. Under the pre-crime paradigm, reacting to criminal acts that already happened became less relevant than preventing crime by relying on data trails and pattern-of-life analysis that indicate when and where crime may occur in the future. In addition to law enforcement, the logic of “anticipatory reason” became evident also in military operations. As the U.S. and a few other States started relying on the preventive use of military force against vaguely-defined threats, preventive war emerged as a new operative logic of power that defined our era. This research aims, on the one hand, to explore where and why preventive measures represent a risk for human rights and other fundamental values of our societies, while, on the other hand, to evaluate where and why preventive measures might be useful to reduce crime and social harms. For this research, we selected a number of topics that we believe should be critically addressed. (1) We want to examine theories and practices of prevention in order to gain new knowledge of the preventive measures used for reducing various forms of crime and social harm. For example, we would like to explore the political contexts and ideology driving contemporary crime prevention policies, and examine why those measures succeeded or failed to produce results. (2) We aim to provide new insights into crime prevention. Firstly, the research aims to discuss the use of genetics, neuroscience, and behavioral science in crime prediction in order to address ethical and legal issues arising in the process of predicting future violent behavior. The key objective here is to show how crime predicting technologies undermine some key principles of criminal law and procedure. Secondly, the research will focus on a specific crime – that is, corruption – to explore the reasons for the (in)effectiveness of the preventive “anti-corruption bureaucracy.” (3) We would like to examine the preventive use of military force. This part of the research will have two key objectives. The first one is to examine how the U.S. redefined preventive use of force in jus ad bellum and compare the redefined concept with similar concepts adopted by other States (e.g., U.K., Israel, Russia, India). The second objective is to examine the reconceptualization of preventive use of force in jus in bello. The aim is to show how the new concept of preventive use of force provided U.S. troops with very broad criteria for determining which individuals represented an imminent threat in combat operations. (4) We also want to focus on how to prevent specific social harms. Firstly, we want to examine which social harms are created by artificial intelligence used to predict human behavior and formulate new solutions for regulating such technology. The harms that we would like to focus on include, for example, discrimination and manipulation of peoples’ decisions. Secondly, the research will explore social harms caused by consumerism (e.g., pollution, labor exploitation) in order to find answers on how to prevent such harms. The research will examine a number of preventive measures to gain an understanding of how such measures could be used to prevent the harmful consequences of consumerism. The overall objective of the project is to explore relevant theoretical concepts and practices of prevention in order to provide the academic community, policymakers, and the public at large with recommendations on how to eliminate the risks of preventive measures and how to create and use such measures in a way that will be beneficial for society.
