Book Reviews: Crime and Punishment in the Future Internet Digital: Frontier Technologies and Criminology in the Twenty-First Century
| Author | Steven Kemp |
| DOI | 10.1177/20662203211059602 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Milivojevic Sanja, Crime and Punishment in the Future Internet: Digital Frontier Technologies and
Criminology in the Twenty-First Century. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021; 148 pp. ISBN
9780367468002. £27.99 (pbx)
Reviewed by: Steven Kemp, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Crime and Punishment in the Future Internet offers much-needed insight into the present
and future relationship between criminology and digital frontier technologies (DFTs):
fast-changing technologies that have a political, economic and cultural impact at a micro-
and macro-level. As this definition suggests, technological advances affect crime and
crime control, meaning criminology as a field needs to be prepared to understand the
constantly changing landscape. Milivojevic aims to set out some of the key criminological
debates with regard to four DFTs: artificial intelligence and machine learning, the internet
of things, autonomous mobile robots, and blockchain. Using a foresight approach based
on scanning and scenario writing, and drawing on literature from several disciplines, the
author examines how digital technologies interact and will interact with offending,
victimisation and the criminal justice system. In this manner, the book provides scholars
and practitioners with an up-to-date complement to other publications, such as that by
McGuire and Holt (2017), which have also outlined some of the potential future impacts
of technology on crime and punishment.
After an introductory chapter in which the context, methods and aims of the book are
set out, Milivojevic begins Chapter 2 by discussing three themes that are central to
understanding the impact of DFTs. First, big data is the foundation of much artificial
intelligence and is often derived from the internet of things. Second, security and risk are
commonly used as the principal justification for the expansion of DFTs, while third, mass
surveillance and the erosion of privacy are a common outcome. The second half of
Chapter 2 introduces the theoretical grounding for the analysis and forecasting of the four
DFTs in the subsequent chapters. The author adopts a post-humanist approach, which
recognises the role of humans and non-humans as well as the interactions between them.
As a consequence, actor-network theory is highlighted as particularly relevant to explain
the relationship between human and non-human actors in the future internet. Actuarial
automated justice based on big data, ever-present surveillance and the identification of
future risks constitutes another important theoretical perspective. In particular, foreseeing
limitations and the potential for harm is underscored as crucial to the development of
technology that may eventually make decisions regarding the lives and liberty of humans.
As noted in Chapter 3, artificial intelligence is getting stronger, and it is playing a
growing role in criminal offending. This chapter begins with a discussion of the chal-
lenges faced by a legal system that struggles to keep up with AI developments. For
instance, as the power of machines to learn and offend by themselves increases, at what
point might they be attributed criminal liability? Furthermore, as others such as Zavr ˇ
snik
(2021) have noted, AI developments within the criminal justice system raise concerns
because algorithmic criminal justice—for example, predictive policing or algorithmic
sentencing—is prone to perpetuating and exacerbating existing discriminations. To
Book Review 323
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