Minority Report Ethical Issues

The text “The Minority Report” by Philip K. Dick is a commentary on the concept of innocence and one’s freedom of choice. It is often said that stories change significantly when becoming movies. The movie by the same name Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg is based off the same ideas and concept the unpredictability of life and choices. It is a prime example of how the short story and movie differ even if the basic concepts remain unchanged.

Watching movies is a leisurely activity enjoyed by many people. Not only are movies enjoyable to get a good laugh, cry, or just to relax to, but there are many things to be learned from movies as well. For this project I choose to examine two movies from a sociological perspective. The two movies I chose are, Law Abiding Citizen and 8 Mile.

“Minority Report” is a short story that was published in 1956 written by Phillip K. Dick. John Anderson is the head of Precrime, and ends up on the run for his life. Precrime uses Precogs, to predict the future so crime does not happen. Anderson’s name came up on a card, so Anderson has to clear his name. First Anderson has to find out if it is an error in the system or is the system failing. Anderson then commits his own prediction and murders to prove that the system is not flawed. Anderson kills Kaplan to save Precrime.

Hollywood scripts and television programming are filled with storylines of crime and criminal justice. The viewing public consumes crime

Minority Report is a 2002 science fiction film directed by renowned director Steven Spielberg and is set in the year 2054 in Washington, D. C. The film revolves around an elite law enforcing squad; Precrime. The Precrime Division uses three genetically altered humans called Pre-Cogs whom possesses special powers to see into the future and predict crimes beforehand. After each crime is foreseen and analyzed, Precrime police officers are sent to the crime location to apprehend the future murderers and place them under arrest. The future murderers are then put into a sleep state with a device called a "halo". Based on Minority Report, it suggests that humans are free willed beings and have the ability to alter the future that was

The method is more subtle in Minority Report, but it is still present; the show “COPS” is shown on television to emphasize the horror of crimes, so the public will support the Precrime program. Due to these factors the source of power is impossible to be fought against; consequently, corrupt governments maintain

At what point do the people determine if certain crimes will require intervention? Are these computer programs causing people to get into trouble before they even commit a crime, just because they are now likely to? People have been arrested when they were technically committing no crime, they were then later proven to have illegal substances on them. The only reason these women were found and arrested, was because the program determine they would be at the location where crime was predicted to be committed. This program does not seem to be completely legally sound. “Two women were taken into custody after they were discovered peering into cars in a downtown parking garage in Santa Cruz, Calif. One woman was found to have outstanding warrants; the other was carrying illegal drugs” (Goode). Crime tracking systems are not calibrated as much as manually put in information in the systems. Some of the programs are mostly only good for analyzing past information and patterns, rather than predicting future crimes.” In contrast, CompStat and other crime-tracking systems in use in many cities are calibrated less frequently, rely more on humans to recognize patterns, and allocate resources based on past crimes rather than predicted future offenses” (Goode). The programs have yet to even be completely proven, in terms of accuracy. These programs depend on the accuracy of the information that was put

The plot of the film Minority Report associates itself with a number of themes. The plot is mainly centered around three psychics known as “precogs”. These precogs have the ability to see future crimes that will be committed. The precogs are being used by a specialized police department which uses the visions seen by the precogs in order to capture the criminals before they commit the crime. Fahrenheit 451 is very clear in its warnings which are aimed at our present time. Bradbury attempts to convey the themes of free will and determinism and this theme is also clearly conveyed in Minority Report and is supported by 3 main parallels between the two stories. John and Montag are particularly similar. Both are in government jobs at the beginning of the story, but by the end they had deceived the government and pursued their own free will. Both of the protagonists are also entirely unaided in their pursuit and their wives do not trust them. Beatty and Lamar are also quite similar. Both are leaders and both have committed an act that contradicts the very ideals they are supposed to

Annual fees are about 15% of the instillation price (Buckley, 2009). Although the cost seems high, the information collected can be processed much faster than it would be in the field. There is no value that can be placed on a human life. If you or your family could be saved as a result of the technology, wouldn’t it be worth it? Statistics show that roughly 80% of gun fire is reported (Shot Spotter, 2014). Chicago alone, there were 783 homicides in 2016. This technology has the potential to save hundreds of lives in high crime areas such as Chicago(O'Connell, P. M. (2017). Imagine what it could do near

Within the society of Minority Report surveillance is utilized to assist crime control and establish greater power and conformity. A society with universal conformity results in the ultimate power over one’s beliefs and actions. Betrayal by those who you trust creates parallels traversing the narratives of 1984 and Minority Report. Particularly, in 1984, exploitation of children is an antecedent to creating conformity, while in Minority Report, manipulation of self-trust is the antecedent which serves a similar purpose. As he is accused of a future crime, John proclaims that “[he] [doesn’t] have an alternate future. [He] [is] going to kill [that] man” (Minority). John accepts the truth of self-betrayal which is what the collective society

When thinking about these two films we can see how has civil law establish a representation of torts, negligence, product liability, compensatory damages, and many other things that relate to the analyzation of the American civil law portrayed in our media.

The second ethical dilemma is Wigand’s decision to tell his story about the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation. The movie was made to show his struggle with how hard it was for Wigand to make this decision. He could not keep this kind of information from the public, especially after working with healthcare companies before being employed by Brown and Williamson. He felt personally obliged to tell this story because it could potentially save the lives of countless people. After he decided to do the interview, even knowing the criticism he would receive, the tobacco company then retaliated with campaigns about how awful of a person Wigand was, which then led his wife to divorce him. Wigand made the right decision, and many reasonable people would have done the same thing. There were obviously others who knew about the same information but were too scared of the consequences that Wigand unfortunately had to endure. The CBS interview, in the end, was aired to the public.

There are many ethical issues in the movie Erin Brockovich. This movie is about a mother of three who uncovers a water poisoning case by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) in southern California. Erin has the responsibility to feed and educate her three children and she has a general distrust of people. She begins by forcing her lawyer Ed Masry to give her a secretarial job after he failed to get her a settlement from an auto accident.

Minority Report is an oddly misplaced mystery/action movie about a cop who is accused of a future murder. Set in early 21st century Washington, DC, the police have the ability to stop murders before they happen with the help of three psychics. They use technology to enhance the visions of these psychics, referred to as pre-cognitives (or “pre-cogs”) to generate not only the name of the victim and perpetrator, but also the evidence against them: hence the crime of murder is reduced to a black and white picture. Anytime the Pre-cogs’ visions are in conflict a Minority Report is generated, yet it is also destroyed except for what the pre-cog who predicted it remembers deep within their mind.

Minority Report is set in the year 2054 where a private company have supposedly solved the problem of murder in Washington DC. The chosen theme that will be explored in this analytical essay is ethics in the movie and mainly about the ethics of the pre-cogs. There is an ethical theme in this film because the pre-cogs are constantly drugged to the point where they can only see future murders and not the reality that surrounds them. How is it ethical to keep people basically unconscious against their will? The people who set up the pre-crime are using the principle of utilitarianism; the sacrifice of a few to benefit many to justify using the pre-cogs.