The Affordance-Actualization process in a Predictive Policing Context: insights from the French Military Police

authors

  • Godé Cécile
  • Brion Sébastien
  • Bohas Amélie

keywords

  • Affordance
  • Actualization
  • Patterns of uses
  • Predictive Analytics
  • Predictive Policing

document type

COMM

abstract

Drawing on the Affordance-Actualization Theory (AAT), our article addresses the following research question: how do the affordances of a predictive analytics are actualized? We aim at providing a con-ceptual framework of the affordance-actualization process which works to advance our understanding of the way actors and a predictive system interact to actualize affordances. We employed an explora-tory multisite case study focusing on a predictive policing system recently implemented in French military police – Gendarmerie. Based on the qualitative content analysis of datasets gathered over an 18-month, we show that the actualization process of affordance rests on different patterns of uses de-veloped by police officers in interaction with associated outcomes. We further highlight how these patterns-of-uses-outcomes interactions result in non, partial or full actualization of perceived af-fordances.

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