The Use of Big Data in Criminal Justice and its Challenges

ABSTRACT The explosive growth of information and the development of data processing technology have generated ‘big data’ tools, which have opened up major transformations in various fields. The field of criminal justice has also been subjected to big data application without exception, and it is undergoing a major development from partial data statistics to ‘full data’ analysis, from retrospective thinking to predictive thinking. Big data has been applied to various stages of investigation, prosecution, and delivery of punishment, but it still faces the issues of fairness and legitimacy, and its utility cannot be truly realized. Effective regulation and supervision of data and algorithms can prevent discrimination and improve the fairness of big data tools, and by redesigning relevant judicial procedure rules and clarifying the basic principles of personal information data collection, it can help realize big data applications and secure basic rights and achieve the best balance between protection which make it acceptable to the public. Finally, the auxiliary role of big data in criminal justice needs to be reassured which means it cannot and should not overstep the tasks that are exclusively for criminal justice decision-makers.