Exam 2 Review: Technology and the Criminal Justice System

Exam Date: Tuesday, Nov. 2

Required Reading in Text: Chapters 5, 6, &7

1.Crime Prevention and Soft Technology: Various forms of soft, information-based technology have been applied to the prevention of a diverse number of crimes, including terrorism, school violence, workplace violence and sex crimes. Examples include:

  1. Threat assessment instruments (e.g. prevent school violence, terrorism, etc.)
  2. Bullying identification protocol
  3. Sex offender registration; sex offender risk assessment devices
  4. The use of “profiling” to prevent crime
  5. The use of mental health data by school officials; and linking mental health, criminal record, and gun purchase data bases; lessons learned from Virginia Tech tragedy
  6. The application of other forms of soft technology to crime prevention (e.g. information sharing, improved nationwide data collection protocol for criminal histories, etc.)

Links to review:

United States Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center

Insider Threat Study: Illicit Cyber Activity in the Government Sector

FBI Congressional Testimony

Myths and Facts About Sex Offenders

The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative

Final report: Virginia Tech Tragedy

Boston Globe article: Police crime watch

2. The Police and Hard Technology : Federal, state, and local police haveapplied hard technology not only in the area of individual offender apprehension, but also in the area of community-level surveillance and control. In addition, technological innovations have been used to improve the safety and protection of police officer. Examples include:

  1. Improvement in weaponry of police
  2. Less-than-lethal force technology used in mob/potential riot situations
  3. Computers in squad cars to improve criminal identification and /or for gang identification; computer-based strategies to identify criminal behavior on the internet (e.g. sex offenders, cyber crime, terrorism)
  4. Improvements in offender/citizen identification (e.g. biometrics, fingerprints, etc.)
  5. Improvements in police protection devices (e.g. bullet proof vests, new construction of police departments)
  6. Other applications of hard technology to policing

Links to review:

Newark and CCTV

PERF Body Armor

PERF Taser

FBI: DELIVERING THE FUTURE The Biometric Center of Excellence

3. The Police and Soft Technology: Therecent emphasis on intelligence-basedpolicing has resulted in a wide range of soft technology advancements that have transformed police problem-solving strategies at the federal, state, and local level. Examples include:

  1. Crime mapping technology (hot spots)
  2. Crime analysis technology (COMPSTAT)
  3. Improvements in criminal history data systems
  4. Other “soft” technology applications in policing (e.g. information sharing within the CJS; public-private information sharing.
  5. Review of Police Technology: Case study of Technological Change in Boston-Does Technology improve or impede police performance?
  6. Technology skills needed for careers in law enforcement

Links to review: see weekly schedule links