The Role of AI in Criminal Justice: Predictive Policing, Bias, and Due Process

Abstract

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in criminal justice systems across the world is transforming past ways of doing things in terms of law enforcement, judicial proceedings, and criminal prevention. More precisely, predictive policing technologies are designed to make policing as efficient as possible by predicting crime patterns and revealing possible perpetrators with the use of machine learning algorithms. Nonetheless, the speed at which such tools are used is causing significant concerns about legality and ethical aspects especially those arising due to bias in algorithms, lack of transparency, and violation of due process of law.
The following paper analyzes the use of AI in contemporary criminal justice systems, its involvement in predictive analytics, its tendency to reproduce systemic favoritism, and the effect in terms of fundamental rights. This paper critically re-assesses global best practices in an interdisciplinary background and with a particular focus upon the changing legal framework in Pakistan through evolving discourse by the academics and the formation of policies. It ends by recommending practical steps to be taken in order to make sure that implementation of AI in the context of criminal justice leads to improvement in the understanding but not diminishment of the idea of fairness, accountability, and legality.