Description
Organised by the Predictive Policing Network---------------------------------------------------------
Predictive analytical tools are increasingly shaping police practice and reorienting the allocation of police resources. For example, algorithms can now be used to assess the risk of offending behaviour among individuals, with a risk assessment score being produced using combinations of variables such as criminal history, age, gender and education level. Other innovative algorithmic technologies shaping contemporary criminal justice practice include crime mapping and hotspots policing, and victimisation risk assessments.
The rise of predictive analytics has generated considerable attention in recent years. These developments raise issues that cut across several legal disciplines beyond criminal procedure, including data protection, administrative law, and equality and human rights law. There is, however, currently a lack of dialogue between these different disciplinary perspectives on how the use of predictive technologies in the criminal justice context can and should be regulated. In addition, while there is a rich body of academic literature emerging on this topic there is, too often, little connection or exchange of these insights between scholars and practitioners or policymakers.
The purpose of the workshop is to provide a platform for legal researchers from different fields to discuss the legal and regulatory challenges that arise from the use of predictive analytics in policing. It will address pressing questions raised by the increasing use of advanced algorithmic technologies for predictive policing, such as:
What are the potential benefits and pitfalls of these practices?
What unintended impacts and consequences arise from their use?
How can, and should, the law respond - are existing legal mechanisms adequate, and if not what new forms of regulation are required?
What will be the impact of the UK's departure from the European Union, and what position should the UK adopt in respect of new legislative proposals such as the EU AI Act?
The workshop aims to foster dialogue between legal academics from different disciplinary perspectives, to focus on how the core concepts and principles of each legal discipline can inform the development of coherent and robust regulation of predictive policing. It also aims to help bridge the gap that currently exists between academics and policymakers working in this area.
The one-day event will take place in Sheffield, at which academics with expertise in human rights and discrimination, criminal procedure and evidence, data protection, administrative law, and socio-legal studies will be invited to present papers focusing on key issues engaged by the use and regulation of predictive analytics in policing.
| Period | 12 Feb 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Workshop |
| Degree of Recognition | International |