Key Ways in Which Technology is Changing the Criminal Justice Landscape

If there are two factions that have long since been at odds, it’s technology and criminal justice. Technology is an ever-evolving entity that has expanded at a much faster rate than our criminal justice system can keep up with. This has led to a number of cases occurring without the proper statutes and laws in place to properly administer a ruling on them. Additionally, it’s allowed criminals to outsmart the police and lawyers in almost every way.

Facial Recognition
Beyond the purview of unlocking our cellphones and scanning into high-security buildings, facial recognition software can have a larger role in society. With new algorithms and updates to the technology, facial recognition can become a key player in a police officer’s arsenal of tactics. By including a facial scanning component to their body camera, the facial recognition software can automatically scan the faces of anyone an officer comes into contact with. This automatically alerts whether or not the person has warrants and needs to be brought in. This technology is still in the development and legal stages, but we may expect to see it sooner than later.


Criminal Case Management Software
One of the biggest issues plaguing the criminal justice system is the time frame it takes cases to be processed and tried. Despite the fact that our system is founded upon a fast and speedy trial precedent, that “fast and speedy” can often take years. This is especially true if new evidence is found, lawyers are constantly in litigation or a myriad of other causes. Criminal case management software works to keep the ins and outs of any together during the entire process. Criminal case management software can help with the organizing key pieces of evidence, track the production of documents, create to-do lists that manage completed and uncompleted task, and so much more. This is especially helpful for keeping track of all important witnesses during the life of the case. Witness software organizes the contacts and statements of all necessary witnesses. This is extremely important for cases that can take a while. Even though the goal of the software is to help expedite the process, sometimes factors outside of the software can affect the processing time of the case. With criminal case management software, lawyers can guarantee that they have everything they need for when the trial date arrives.

Electronic Monitoring
Though the idea of electronic monitoring is far from a recent innovation, there has been some discussion about using it in a more widespread effort. Many, if not most, of the United States’ prisons, are experiencing unprecedented levels of overcrowding. Instead of stuffing the prisons with low-level, first-time offenders, some are considering a glorified, more intensive house arrest program. This level of house arrest would require cameras, GPS monitoring, BAC monitoring, surveillance, and more. It may sound easier and more cost effective to just send them to prison; however, the goal is to prevent low-level first-time offenders from committing higher offending crimes. High-level offenders are often mixed with low-level first-time offenders, increasing the risk of influence for low-level first-time offenders to be placed in scenarios where greater crimes can be committed. Limiting the risk of this while controlling the size of the prison population is a long researched problem that may soon have a win.


The inability to keep criminal justice on pace with technology can be a damaging problem. However, these three aforementioned technologies help to propel our founding fathers’ system of justice into the new century where it belongs.

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