Transparency Laws Let Criminal Records Become Commodities
Every three seconds, a person is arrested in the United States, mostly for low-level incidents like drug possession or disorderly conduct. After that person is booked, they may or may not be charged with a crime by prosecutors, and even if they are charged, the case can end in a dismissal. This should be the end of the story.
When the state funnels police and court data into the private sector, it is participating in a form of surveillance capitalism by turning criminal records into data commodities. This is rooted in two uniquely American contexts. The first is mass incarceration in the United States. One in three Americans have some sort of criminal record, which by extension means there is personal data garnered through arrest and court records for a full third of the US population. The second factor is American transparency law, which, unlike transparency law in other countries, classifies criminal records as public record and thus allows data companies to benefit.
States need to stop participating in the data brokerage industry. Profit-seeking big-data profiling is not a legitimate use of public records policy. In fact, we could use more transparency in this context: to see exactly how much states profit from the sale of personal information about prisoners and criminal defendants, to know where that money comes from, and to show how data brokers use the court records they’ve obtained.
This. This is why I was reluctant to watch the new Spider-Man movie. The end of the last one, where he was doxxed by the villain, gave me heart palpitations and triggered my anxiety something fierce. For those on the registry, doxxing by vigilantes and the self-righteous is a very real fear.
I posed this subject to both my court ordered therapist and my personal therapist and got two very different responses. The court ordered therapist made comments like “these are outlier cases that get hyped by the biased media.” My personal therapist, who doesn’t make a living off institutionalized shaming of people on the registry, was far more sympathetic, and said my fears are valid.
In today’s world, with cancel culture and the politicizing of every aspect of life, doxxing is a very real problem.
Vindicated
Totally agree. The registry is Doxxing .
This article kept referring to how the registry was necessary to help the victims go forward etc. this being so than the registry is all about retaliation. If it’s retaliation then it’s punishment not to protect anyone especially the victims for they already know who they are.
The Supreme Court only allowed it because they said it was not punishment and protected society. Both totally false as 25 yrs. of history has shown.
Retaliation has never solved any problems only caused more problems, though it sometimes does make the victims feel better.
You cannot have it as retaliation and it not be punishment. Not physically possible. The writer of this article is admitting the registry is for punishment purposes. For that reason it is illegal to be used retroactively.
At approximately 4 minutes 20 seconds into this video nit wits start naming schools/parks and other places that are with in 1 mile of this registered citizen. Unbelievable, and i thought i heard it all. Man, i dont think this is ever gonna get any better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fAGo5antzI