Law Commons^™

The Cloudy Crystal Ball: Genetics, Child Abuse, And The Perils Of Predicting Behavior, Robert D. Stone

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the cinematic world of Minority Report, mankind stands on the brink of a society without murder. Police can see the future, predicting murders and arresting perpetrators before they act. This utopian system is the ultimate evolution in preventative policing because it offers perfect prediction; it does not show what people intend to do, only what they will do. Society accepts the incarceration of pre-murderers, people who have committed no crimes, because there is no such thing as the "wrongfully accused.' Is the ability to predict behavior only science fiction, or can a combination of genetic and environmental factors actually …