Speculative Fact #313: Thought Experiments and Thought Crimes

A company in Israel has developed a program which analyzes faces to determine traits about that person and spot potential criminals. They claim that they can pick out white collar criminals, great poker players, and even pedophiles. The technology uses a broad database of facial traits and features and cross references them with the characteristics of known criminals. In the same way that faces are largely predetermined by genetics, they argue that criminal aptitude is also inherited.
            They are attempting to sell their creation with the claim that they can determine who is likely to be a terrorist, which concerns both Israel and the USA. Understandably, these bold claims have been met with knee-jerk reactions among the public, with people comparing it to the antiquated pseudoscience of phrenology. The program, however, has already been contracted by the Department of Homeland Security, which means it might have a future here in America.
            Such technology can quickly become a slippery slope. Even ignoring the many experts that are critical or skeptical, it has serious ethical and legal implications. Supposing we use such methods to preemptively identify criminals; if it becomes normalized and acceptable, will we punish criminals before they commit crimes? In Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report, beings with precognitive mental abilities predicted crimes before they occurred, which eventually lead to departments dedicated to precrime. Is our behavior predetermined by nature or does environment mitigate inheritance? At what point does crime prevention become thought crime?

-Jonathan Hernandez