Network Analysis and «Predictive Policing»: Towards a «Profiling Society»?

Network analysis is a powerful tool that is increasingly used not only to determine events that occurred in the past, but also to predict what may happen in the future. This paper will discuss the perspective, far from being abstract or remote, that such methods may be adopted in order to anticipate crimes. Taking into account current technologies, present legal science and according to the recent «Onlife Manifesto», here are talked three issues, concerning respectively the epistemological, the legal-philosophical and the anthropological aspect. In the first place, the relevance of the information provided in a crime’s «prediction», since it does not concern an event of the past. Secondly, the nature of responsibility ascribed on these grounds, as neither an «actus reo» nor a «mens rea» can be found in the case. Finally, the kind of punishment could be given to the supposed criminal, because free will should be doubted if his behaviour could be foreseen.