Crime Control-Quantum Mechanical Way

8/14/2019 Crime Control-Quantum Mechanical Way

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CRIME CONTROL - QUANTUM MECHANICAL WAY

By

S.P.Srivastava,I.P.S.

An analysis of crime perception and its

management in the light of evolving scientific

thoughts

INTRODUCTION

Plato had portrayed science as an activity with double benefits: science as pure thoughthelps mind to find truth, and science as power provides tools for effective action. Gerald

Holton1, a noted philosopher has observed The main flaw in this image is that it omits

a third vital aspect: science has always generated an important part of our symbolicvocabulary and provided some of the metaphysical bases and philosophical orientations

of our ideology. As a consequence, the methods of arguments of science, its conceptions

and its models, have permeated first the intellectual life of the time, then the tenets andusages of every day life. In this light it is my endeavor to analyze philosophical

orientations and scientific evolutions in the realm of one of the basal instincts of

mankind; the crime.

QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE

Since the advent of civilization, human mind has been preoccupied with the quest forknowledge. There has been a variety of things happening around, which arouse curiosity

for understanding and desire to control and manage according to ones own design.

People saw sunrise and set, seasons set in and disappear, natural events, which broughtprosperity and happiness and caused havoc also at times. Flood and fire, thunder and

storm, cyclone and earthquake, and many more forms of calamities made them shiver and

fear.

Human mind tackled this with two broad approaches or two modes of consciousness,which can be termed as rational and intuitive. Rational approach was based on experience

one had with the objects and events, and belongs to the realm of intellect laying emphasison objectivity. It relies on measurable and verifiable facts and their analysis. Objectivity

is a crucial factor of this knowledge and, therefore, object interacted with is dissected to

1 Ideas in Science-Edited by Oscar H.Fidell, A Readers Enrichment Series, Published by Washington

Square Press,Inc.


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measurable and verifiable abstract entities. Intuitive approach, on the other hand, is puresubjective and lies in the realm of faith and emotions. It experiences the object in its

entirety in relation to oneself and the whole existence. It demands no explanation.

At the dawn of human evolution, measuring and verifying tools were not developed,

invented, or known; events and surroundings were understood from within the realm offaith. Cause of events was attributed to unknown forces of nature, at times personified in

the form of God or different deities. Pleased deity showered good harvest and pleasantclimate; his wrath caused disaster and calamities. Various religions and sects evolved by

basing themselves on particular deity, claiming his superiority, and then by preaching

methods on how to avoid wrath and win the blessings of that deity. Faith was thedominant factor that guided human actions and shaped worldview perspective.

UNDERSTANDING OF CRIME

During this period, when faith was the predominant guiding factor, crime was managedwith this mindset. Defiance of dictates of the priest and disrespect to the deity was the

most heinous of crime. Crime that emerged very early in human history are, therefore,

sacrilege or the violations of supernatural taboos. Treason or disloyalty to the group,especially in time of conflict or war, was perhaps the second most universal and among

the first few acts to have been recognized as a public wrong. Persons who could establish

themselves as the one chosen by, or closest to God, wielded supreme authority to decide

the guilt and award punishment.

DETERMINISTIC WORLD VIEW

Gradual invention of refined scientific tools paved the way for seeking rational

explanations of events, which were hitherto attributed to whims and fancies of

supernatural forces. The world view started changing with frequent discoveries inscience, especially in physics and it reached its apex when Newton proposed a

mechanical model of the universe. The giant cosmic machine was seen as being

completely causal and deterministic. Future of any part of the system could in principle

be predicted with absolute certainty if its state at any time was known in all details. Therole of supernatural power thus became less relevant and the authority of those "God

men" could no longer remain absolute.

CRIME AND CLASSICAL CONCEPT

Formidable success of Newtonian model of mechanistic world waded its way intoevery mode of human expression until it became undisputed world view. Determinism

became the guiding thought process of philosophers, poets, painters and thinkers. A new

approach of perception and interpretation evolved in the realm of interpersonalrelationships and societal conduct, including acts of crime. Invention of new

machines/engines, which changed the life of men, established the authority of scientific


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determinism even further .Newly infused rationality and objectivity questioned the verydefinition of crime and its methodology to deal with it. Not believing in God or not

performing a ritual (considered as sacred) could no more be treated as a social crime. It

came down to the pedestal of a personal choice. As it became evident that new standpointis needed to define crime as such, so also need arose for evolving a rational process to

establish guilt and inflict uniform punishment.

CRIME MANAGEMENT IN CLASSICAL ERA

Mechanistic world view and its successes proved beyond doubt that the forces of nature

can be exploited. It was, therefore, natural to perceive that human conduct can also beinfluenced. Crime was perceived as an event, caused by its perpetrators under the

influence of defined set of circumstances, which could be manipulated. By invoking

preventive, punitive and curative measures, this aspect of human conduct can be guided

towards a crime-free situation. It envisages an institutionalized framework, which wouldbring about objectivity. Pursuant to this, it is likely that criminal justice system came into

being. Various acts and codes were legislated, wherein several categories of crime weredefined, along with procedures and methods to arrive at finding and establishing guilt.Institution of police was enshrined with the responsibility of establishing the guilt. Since

establishing the guilt was the first and foremost requirement, police acquired an

exceptional status in the entire scheme of things. Being in this pursuit for long, watchingthe results of their actions by way of people being executed and punished, thus leading to

its inevitable impact on the crime environment, the police in particular came to believe

that crime was controlled by them.

POLICE SETUP AND CLASSICAL CONCEPT

Police organization gradually developed into a structured and hierarchically-managedinstitution with its emphasis on objectivity. Infused with the idea of being able to

control crime, it obviously thought to control its constituent elements as well. It gaverise to concept of control and supervision in the scheme of managing the organization

as well.

QUANTUM MECHANICAL CONCEPT

As science advanced, invention of sensitive tools of observations enabled scientists toexplore deeper into molecules and atoms and reach out to fundamental particles, with the

result that gradually classical theories, hitherto so powerful, started crumbling.

INADEQUACY OF CLASSICAL CONCEPT

Turing wrote in a letter to his mother: It used to be supposed in science

that if every thing was known about the universe at any particular moment, thenwe can predict what it will be through all the future....Further, modern science however

has come to the conclusion that when we are dealing with atoms and electrons, we are

quite unable to know the exact state of them, our instruments being made of atoms and


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electrons themselves. The conception then of being able toknow the exact state of theuniverse then must really break down on the small scale. 2

WAVE PARTICLE DUALITY

While classical physics could explain satisfactorily any phenomenon at the macro level,its inadequacy became more prominent at micro level. For instance, while understandingthe nature of light,.Newton explained it satisfactorily as composed of particles. Sun

light according to him was nothing but incessant rain of light particles of varying colors.

Trouble started with when Young made a double slit experiment, whose result could not

be explained with Newtonian concepts. Keep an opaque screen in front of alight object, say a candle, make a small hole and we see a small light dot on the wall

behind the screen, which goes to prove that light is composed of particles. If we make

two holes, slightly separated apart in the screen, we do not get two dots behind the screenas expected; rather we observe dark and white bands similar to a train of waves we

observe when we drop a stone in a pond, with troughs and s. This is possible only if

light is composed of waves. However, if it is wave, then single slit effect cannot beexplained. So simple an experiment and so intriguing the observations. Great scientists

experimented and re experimented, argued and counter-argued and eventually agreed

upon that light is both. It is composed of discrete particles and is all pervading continuous

wave as well. It is particle when there is single slit and wave when there are two slits.Potentially, it is both at the same time. It will collapse into either of the two, depending

on how we are interacting with it (single slit or double).

UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY CONCEPT

It is now settled that every particle has a wave associated with it; each particle actually

exhibits wavelike behavior. Gradually, rigid definiteness of deterministic concept melted

and paved the way for probability. Thus if your car is parked in your garage, we sayprobability density of finding your car in your garage is maximum; however, it being in

my garage can not be totally ruled out. It may sound strange for an object like a car but a

different rule of game is prevalent at the micro level; here, principle of uncertainty rulesthe arena. German physicist, Werner Heisenberg, articulated in 1927 that the position and

the velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly at the same time, even in

theory. The very concepts of exact position and exact velocity together, in fact, have no

meaning in nature. Any attempt to measure precisely the velocity of a subatomic particle,such as an electron, will knock it about in an unpredictable way, so that a simultaneous

measurement of its position has no validity. This result has nothing to do with

inadequacies in the measuring instruments, the technique or the observer; it arises out ofthe intimate connection in nature between particles and waves in the realm of subatomic

dimensions. A fundamental concept in quantum mechanics is that of randomness, or

indeterminacy. In general, the theory predicts only the probability of a certain result.Einstein, though a father figure in development of quantum concept, however, till end

could not reconcile with this idea of uncertainty, and kept on believing that God does

2 The great philosophers - edited by Ray Monk and Frederic Raphael


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not play dice. Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicists, has observed We havefound it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the

ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of

varying degrees of certainty-some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutelycertain.3

CRIME CONTROL AND QUANTUM CONCEPT

Presently, our mind is obsessed with the thought of controlling the crime which is a

legacy of deterministic era . It is out of tune with quantum concept which has shaken the

very determinism out of its ground. There are in fact innumerable factors andcircumstances, both macro and micro, which give rise to crime psychosis. Because of

inherent uncertainty, the efforts made to manipulate these factors may not yield desired

consequences. Things to be controlled and one who controls, affects each other. In fact,both are part of the same process. The "Controller" is controlled as well in the process of

controlling is transformed into a different "Controller" side by side as the "To be

controlled" situation takes up a different shape. The "To be controlled" situation hasinfinite potentialities (like a particle has dual potentiality) and will collapse in a particular

way depending on how "Controller" interacts with the situation - looking from the

controller point of view. And from "To be controlled point of view, "Controller" has

also infinite potential and will collapse in a particular way depending upon how "To becontrolled" has interacted.

Paul Davis4 has described process theology as Process thought is an attempt to view the

world not as a collection of objects or even as a set of events, but as a process with adefinite directionality". World is a community of interdependent beings like a living

organism rather than a collection of cogs in a machine.The example of kicking a stoneand dog would be more relevant to put the point across5. When you kick a stone, it will

react to the kick according to a linear chain of cause and effect. Its behavior can be

calculated by applying basic laws of Newtonian mechanics. When you kick a dog thesituation is quite different. Though a mechanistic interpretation was attempted to predict

the behavior (Pavlov) of the dog but it could not satisfactorily account for certain

observed variations. The dog will respond with structural changes according to its ownnature. Resulting behavior is generally unpredictable. Living organism behaves the

quantum way.

QUANTUM CONCEPT - CONTROL TO MANAGEMENT

As the quantum concept of worldview engulfs the thought process, perceptions

and responses will undergo gradual transformation. This is inevitable. It may be noticedinitially merely as a background noise but later its note and tune is bound to crystallize

3 Universe in a nutshell by Stephens Hawking

4 The mind of God by Paul Davis

5 The Hidden Connections by Fritjof capra


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into a clear melody .In order to be prepared and avoid future-shock, it would berequired of us to be in synergy with the great cosmic design. If two entities ("Controller"

and "To be controlled") are no more distinct, rather are part of same process, the system

would demand them to cooperate and contribute symbiotically in order to enrich andfacilitate the process for harmonious evolution.

QUANTUM MESSAGE - COOPERATE AND CONTRIBUTE

Quantum message is loud and clear. Crime, or for that matter any aspect of a living

organism like the human society can, at the best be managed with symbiotic-dynamism

rather than be controlled by kicking - stone. It has to be a collective effort in which he/shemust contribute his/her professional worth in order to achieve crime-free environment

and cooperate with whomsoever he/she interacts in achieving this objective. Quantum

mechanics also establishes the theory of dependent origination. Cause and effect is not aone-time phenomenon, taking place in isolation here and there. It is part of cyclic chain;

number of causes cumulatively gives rise to an effect, which in turn acts as a cause to

give rise to another effect, this process goes on and on. Crime situation is an event or aneffect, caused by numerous factors. Since we cannot know all the factors (limited by

uncertainty principle), it is not possible to fully control them. It is my hypothesis,

therefore, that "Crime" cannot be "Controlled" in the classical sense. Any effort in that

direction would be but a feudal arrogance - a deterministic drag, which has led the nationto fall in to deep slumber of decided opinion; a root cause of all those deformities, which

have seeped slowly into this arm of criminal justice system. Yes, it can be managed and

can be managed effectively. It calls for a synergic change, a paradigm sift in the mindsetfor smooth cooperation and effective contribution - a quantum mechanical requirement.

After all, nature does not act against itself.

CRIME MANAGEMENT MODULE

Any number of module can be devised depending upon the local circumstances, however,

whatever module is formulated, it must essentially include following steps:

Accept and acknowledge the limitations, which are inherent to the system. Define a clear-cut role vis--vis that of other agencies (viz. Judiciary, Legislation,

Media, NGOs etc.) engaged in furtherance of the common objective (i.e., peaceand harmony - a basic ingredient for overall prosperity).

Respect each other's role and allow full freedom of action to each within theirrespective professional confines.

Draw a professional boundary for action; below which one should not performand beyond which one must not transgress.

Expect unexpected failures, as there is always a scope for enhancing professionalexcellence and believe that other agencies are equally conscious of theirprofessional excellence - a backbone of cooperation.

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Crime Control-Quantum Mechanical Way