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Predictive Policing

Woerden, van, Charlotte (2018) Predictive Policing. Master thesis, Master Religion Conflict and Globalisation.

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Abstract

Traditional policing done by human beings, is increasingly taken over by intelligence-led policing. The latest addition to intelligence-led policing is predictive policing. Via predictive policing tools, algorithms ‘predict’ when and where criminal activities will take place. Based on those algorithms, police deployment is decided on. This development brings forward several ethical and legal issues. In this thesis I address the question how the Dutch police force gives meaning to these issues. The specific ethical and legal issues addressed relate to ‘legitimacy’, ‘equality’, and ‘privacy’. I explore how the Dutch police force gives meaning to these issues via interviewing and discourse analysis. The qualitative research conducted is backed by the theories about panopticism, biopower and social exclusion of Michel Foucault and the Actor-Network Theory of Bruno Latour. I conclude that the Dutch police force gives meaning to the defined ethical and legal issues by making sure the algorithms used within the Dutch predictive policing tool are as transparent as possible, by adding a human factor to the predicting process, and by not including data about ethnicity in the data sets. However, it also becomes clear that several of the defined legal and ethical issues are not acknowledged by the Dutch police force. I argue that paying attention to ethical and legal issues is not the norm within the Dutch police force and ethical and legal risks have been taken for granted in order to promote the use of predictive policing tools. Hereby guaranteeing people’s rights has not been a priority.

Type: Thesis (Master)
Supervisors (RUG):
SupervisorE-mailTutor organizationTutor email
McIvor, M.B.M.McIvor@rug.nl
Knibbe, K.E.K.E.Knibbe@rug.nl
Degree programme: Master Religion Conflict and Globalisation
Academic year: 2017- 2018
Date of delivery: 31 Aug 2018
Last modified: 31 Aug 2018 13:37
URI: https://rcs.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/405
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