ABSTRACT
This chapter examines risk and its relevance to the emergence of pre-crime and the way risk is transformed under pre-crime frames. It focuses on the implications of pre-crime, uncertainty, pre-emption and precaution on crime, justice and society. The chapter demonstrates the various ways that pre-crime, like risk and security, is politicized, selective and divisive. The chapter also examines the dynamic nature of risk and the way that pre-crime measures generate significant threats. The chapter argues that pre-crime, like security, is a system in positive feedback, providing the "proof" of crimes that never happened and a rationale for the expansion of pre-crime measures. Precaution is distinct from prevention because it relates to unknown risks. Security practitioners and politicians have drawn on the precautionary principle as justification for pre-crime counterterrorism measures. The precautionary principle as a rationale for pre-crime consolidates and extends the myriad risks associated with risk as a rationale for coercive crime prevention.
