Yet another reason why using the tools of public health -- rather then actual criminology -- to investigate crime is a bad idea.
Chicago PD's Big Data: using pseudoscience to justify racial profiling (Boing Boing)
The Chicago Police Department has ramped up the use of its "predictive analysis" system to identify people it believes are likely to commit crimes. These people, who are placed on a "heat list," are visited by police officers who tell them that they are considered pre-criminals by CPD, and are warned that if they do commit any crimes, they are likely to be caught.
The CPD defends the practice, and its technical champion, Miles Wernick from the Illinois Institute of Technology, characterizes it as a neutral, data-driven system for preventing crime... He compares it with epidemiological approaches, stating that people whose social networks have violence within them are also likely to commit violence.