UK developing ‘predictive tool’ to determine if someone will become a killer

The Prime Minister's office in the UK is testing software to predict if someone will become a killer later in life

Look at me. Positive for Howard Marks. I'm placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marks and Donald Duman

It was take place today, April 22nd. It's 0800 hours and four minutes

It's a modern-day version of the movie Minority Report, where technology is used to predict and arrest people before they commit murders

Similar to the film, the Ministry of Justice is using the Homicide Prediction Project

to gather police and government data to create profiles and assess risk

now titled Sharing Data to Improve Risk Assessment. State Watch submitted a Freedom of Information request to get more details

about the collaboration with police and the U.K.'s Division of Public Safety

The government explains the pilot program reviews offender characteristics and assists in determining risk assessments for homicides

The Ministry of Justice states it's for research and policy only not to be used

within the court system. The program aims to answer three questions. Can data science improve

predictions? How can local police data enhance accuracy in predicting serious violence? And can

it help understand offender risk and promote more collaboration with local police? The documents

reveal a data sharing agreement that released information on a range of people between 100 and 500 to create what they call a predictive tool The data includes information from cases involving victims witnesses missing persons

suspects, and anyone flagged as a danger. The project also expands its system to include factors such as mental health, addiction, suicide

disability, and vulnerability. All information dates back to before 2015, including demographic data like age, gender, and ethnicity

Predictive models are already used within the UK. England and Wales use the offender assessment system to evaluate risk for individuals in custody and on probation within the community

A Ministry of Justice study found that these algorithms were more accurate for white offenders and less effective for black and mixed ethnicity offenders

State watch researchers argue that these tools are flawed because they rely on data from a system that is institutionally racist and biased against low-income communities

They point to a 2023 government study that used statistical ysis to predict murder based on past offenses

The study, which aimed to improve future predictions of serious re-offending, found ethnicity bias in these predictive tools

UK officials say a report will be published to assess the effectiveness of the system for government use

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Kayleigh Carey. Find more unbiased, fact-based news right now on the Straight Arrow News mobile app