MODULE 7: INTERPRETING DATA

Module 7: Interpreting Data



Module 7: Interpreting Data

Introduction

Advances in technology are changing the way all of us live and work. In our day-to-day lives, we expect and depend on expedient, if not immediate, world-wide communication and access to information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The criminal justice community is no exception to the effects of this change. In response to the growing demands on the justice community and its expanding desire and need for information, many states and localities are increasing their information gathering, analysis and sharing capabilities through developing integrated justice information systems. Increasingly, these integrated criminal justice systems allow for instantaneous and seamless access to information within the justice system and with the world at large (Cowper, 2012, pp.96).

The justice system has been gathering, analyzing, and passing information from one component to another since the “justice process” began. What makes today's automated and seamless sharing of this information different from the “file cabinet and telephone” system of yesterday? This question may have more to do with how society is reacting to the accelerated access and transfer of all types of information, rather than with the justice system process itself.

We have yet to determine the effects on an individual's interest in privacy of “too much” information, “easy, instantaneous access” to vast quantities of information, and the analytical capabilities of today's technology. It is to be seen whether the increased access to information and the ability to relate disparate pieces of a person's information results in a distorted and inaccurate picture of that person (Hennessy, 2012, pp.12). Although we have not resolved these questions, it is critical to begin examining the unique aspects of gathering, accumulating, analyzing, and sharing information in the justice system and the implications on individual privacy.

Like the medical records area, use of personal information in the justice system carries with it the possibility of irreparable harm to an individual, and therefore, requires a high degree of responsibility from justice agencies. If the concept of privacy focuses on an individual's capability to control information about him or herself, the question becomes whether the technological capabilities of integrated criminal justice systems to create an analysis or “virtual picture” of an individual that is contained in and used by the criminal justice system violates an individual's interest in privacy by supplanting an individual's control over his personal information?

This article describes the concept of integrated justice systems, how such systems allow justice agencies to gather, accumulate, and analyze various types of information to create a “virtual picture” of an individual which may be shared by the components of the criminal justice system (Felson, 2009, pp.147). This article further explains that decision-makers in the criminal justice process may use these “virtual pictures” to make judgments about individuals. This article then determines whether federal law provides rules governing the responsible use by justice agencies of such information or whether “responsible use” rules should be pursued. Part II of this article defines Integrated Justice Systems (Paulsen, ...