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Can computer profiles cut crime?

Can computer algorithms identify future victims of crime and tell us where and when crimes will happen? David Edmonds asks whether algorithms can make us safer.

David Edmonds examines how algorithms are used in our criminal justice system, from predicting future crime to helping decide who does and doesn’t go to prison.

While police forces hope computer software will help them to assess risk and reduce crime, civil rights groups fear that it could entrench bias and discrimination.

Analysis asks if these new computer tools will transform policing - and whether we need new laws to regulate them.

Contributors
Archive from Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network
Jonathan Dowey, business intelligence manager, Avon and Somerset Police
Hannah Couchman, Advocacy and Policy Officer, Liberty
Professor Lawrence Sherman, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge
Bryanna Fox, Associate Professor of Criminology University of South Florida
Dame Glenys Stacey, The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
Jamie Grace, Senior Lecturer in Law, Sheffield Hallam University

Producer: Diane Richardson
Editor: Jasper Corbett

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 30 Jun 2019 21:30

Broadcasts

  • Mon 24 Jun 2019 20:30
  • Sun 30 Jun 2019 21:30

Podcast