The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice will use analysis software from IBM to predict crime by young delinquents, putting potential offenders under specific prevention and education programs.

Government’s Point of View:

Crime Prediction

Mark Greenwald, chief of research and planning at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, said, “The State of Florida believes that if youth are rehabilitated with effective prevention, intervention and treatment services early in life, juveniles will not enter the adult corrections system. Our goal is to ensure juveniles do not return to the system. IBM SPSS predictive analytics will allow our organization to refine our current practice and better intervene in juvenile lives earlier to help them become — and stay — law abiding citizens.”

“Predictive analytics gives government organizations worldwide a highly-sophisticated and intelligent source to create safer communities by identifying, predicting, responding to and preventing criminal activities. It gives the criminal justice system the ability to draw upon the wealth of data available to detect patterns, make reliable projections and then take the appropriate action in real time to combat crime and protect citizens“. Gizmodo, April 14, 2010

Microsoft’s Take:

The geniuses working at IBM apparently seem to believe that Minority report, the movie, was a success rather than a mere Hollywood fantasy designed to tickle our fantasies! Therefore, a predicting crime software to them had  “profit center” written all over it!