SELECTIVE INCAPACITATION REVISITED

The term ''incapacitation'' is an important criminological concept tha t implies that the offender's capacity to commit new crimes is to be c oncretely obstructed or reduced through confinement. The purpose of se lective incapacitation is to ''select'' those particularly prone to vi olence and to incapacitate them. The paper presents a critical analysi s of the risk prediction enterprise. The paper addresses the accuracy of prediction, the ethics of prediction, and in particular the researc h culture within which research on prediction occurs.