Posted by Orin Kerr:
Will Technology Lead to More Crimes Being Solved, or Fewer? :
Penn lawprof Paul Robinson, one of the best crimlaw professors in the
country, has a very short essay up on SSRN entitled, [1]Criminal
Justice in the Information Age: A Punishment Theory Paradox. The essay
is a thought experiment about a possible future of criminal law, in
which "most crimes are solved and most perpetrators caught and
punished." Robinson doesn't claim that the future will look this way,
only that it might. Why might it look this way? Robinson points to DNA
testing, computers, GPS satellites, infrared cameras, and other
technologies, and notes that all of these can be used to solve crimes.
According to Robinson, the fact that these technologies can be used to
solve crimes creates at least the possibility that the future will be
one which most crimes are solved and most criminals convicted.
I don't think that's right, though. Technology almost never works in
a straight line like that. For every technology that makes it easier
for the police to catch criminals, there are countertechnologies that
make it harder for police to catch them. As DNA testing becomes more
common, defendants will learn to control the DNA they leave at crime
scenes -- intentionally leaving the DNA of others behind, for example.
Computers can be used to solve crimes, but they can also allow
defendants to commit crimes with almost total anonymity. Cameras can
identify wrongdoers, but can also be circumvented. For every
technology there is a countertechnology, setting off a dynamic and
fluid cat vs. mouse came between the cops and the bad guys.
Robinson's very interesting essay is focused mostly on the "what if"
-- what might criminal law look like if this world were to come to
pass? As a thought experiment, it's a very worthy and interesting one.
As a prediction, though, I don't think it's likely that his vision of
the Information Age will come to pass.
Thanks to [2]CrimProf Blog for the link.
References
1. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=183289
2.
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2005/03/new_article_spo_3.html
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