Pré-crime: A repressão orientada por software

Abstract

The term "precrime software" refers to data analysis tools that can identify regularities to create an expansive perception of "reality," discerning its ramifications and patterns and predicting potential futures, all to guide the operator. These tools can process large datasets to highlight criminogenic areas and situations, assess the likelihood of an individual engaging in criminal activities, and even shape investigative directions by suggesting what may happen or what probably occurred. While these tools are already on the market, they have garnered attention from both the legal and sociological academic realms due to accuracy, legality, and a need for more transparency. However, rather than solely examining them based on the displayed results or the mere description of their operation, it is crucial to recognize that technology materializes the intentions of its inventor and incorporates knowledge that precedes its production. Therefore, it becomes imperative to familiarize oneself with the motivations and intentions of those who created them. Only after acquiring this knowledge could the research delve into questioning these software discursive and material implications in the current criminal scenario. Guiding by this premise, the study focused on the history of the sector responsible for the predictive technology, its ties to the State's repressive apparatus, and the benefits derived from this relationship. Following this, the research critically examined the criminological theories supporting these tools through the lens of the political economy of punishment to illustrate their alignment with capitalist objectives. Later, the study pinpoints companies and tools, revealing that this industry employs legal and technical methods to prevent their valuable assets from being fully intelligible. At the same time, it exposed how using the concept of "error" in an argument can hide the underlying political goals. Next, the research established how the processes of exporting the technology unfold and their effects, including the stage of the issue in Brazil, where law enforcement exploits prediction during obscure criminal pre-procedures. With all that in mind, the study proposed that these software products result from a collaboration between the State and foreign private initiatives. Beyond experiencing renewed momentum in the era of technological solutionism and the normalization of managerial penal practices, this alliance instills a sense of modernity into the State's repressive apparatus. This process leads to a discursive re-legitimization of the criminal justice system by embracing the image associated with startups and redirecting criticisms of criminal discrimination toward the alleged errors of the machine. The study also argues that precrime software intensifies actuarial criminal practices aimed at managing possible futures, with its primary purpose being to sustain the exploitative political-economic structure. Finally, the research claims that the tools establish a market niche, strengthening the predictive industry and empowering the country that creates and exports the technology to maintain the recipient nation in a state of digital colonialism. As a result, the country behind the technology can directly and indirectly influence the practices of the recipient nation's criminal justice system, as artifacts can embody politics.