Criminal Justice – Information Theory

In a broad sense, information is structured, processed and organised data in an organised way. It gives context to previously processed data and allows rational decision making on the basis of facts. For instance, a single customer’s sale at a particular restaurant is information it becomes information the company can use to categorise the different dishes available for customers.

The same goes for the physical information you need to keep track of. For example, your warehouse needs to have space marked off for storage of products and items, so you label each box to make it easy to find. However, there are some elements of logistics which are too complicated to be replaced by informational equivalent:

So how do we make the jump from physical information to information theory? The transition is made most effectively when starting from the very source information. Information theory is then used to replace the causal inputs (what causes an event to happen) with the other categories of semiotic and informational equivalent. Once you have replaced the causal inputs with information, you can say that information is the driving force behind all action. This can be seen from how computers process information a computer isn’t a machine but a highly complex network of machines which need to work in synchronised and efficient ways.

To see how information theory applies to criminal justice, consider this thought-experiment. Imagine that you were to design a foolproof criminal charge against a suspect. You would want to make sure that no matter how strong the evidence, the suspect would still be found guilty because you wouldn’t want to stand a chance of retrying the case. If you had good information about the criminal charge and the defendant’s past actions, you might be able to get beyond the prosecutors initial charges by proving beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant in fact did commit the crime.

One could ask how information theory would apply here. Simply by observing the way that prgrams are written, it seems that the process of choosing the right prgrams and the proper information is not entirely random. This is supported by the fact that many people are willing to pay money for certain information, such as this information. This information is information that would help prosecutors build their case against the suspect. And it has been proven that defendants with good information tend to walk away from their trials.

The beauty of information theory is that it is consistent throughout the discipline of linguistics. It doesn’t leave any grey areas everything is black and white. Prgrams must follow strict grammatical rules (which are extremely exacting and very unlike other disciplines), and they must all adhere to the same guidelines. Prgrams are essentially guides to writing, so once one has mastered the basic principles, it is possible to write without using information at all. This is important because we are living in a digital age where the Internet is used by everyone, and anything written can be found easily. Therefore, it is important to avoid writing with any preconceived notions, ideas, or concepts the more transparent your language is, the more transparent your speech will be judged.