Pre-crime policies in Japan and Russia prior to World War 2 reveal uncanny similarities to the UK’s Prevent strategy and relied on the same social elements to be acceptable.  By Zara W. Tahir The Prevent strategy has often been referred to as a ‘pre-crime’ strategy. Pre-crime is defined as a grey area where a crime has not yet occurred, and yet is implicitly understood to possibly occur. Its origins lie in science fiction. A study by Lucia Zedner at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies states that pre-crime, “… has a tendency to validate developments that ought properly to be subject to intense debate. It licences changes in procedural arrangements, as well as in substantive law, that erode civil liberties and permit intrusive coercive measures to be imposed ahead of wrongdoing.” People express surprise that such a policy has arisen in the UK. But Prevent is not without precedent […]