In the science fiction thriller “Minority Report,” a police force known as PreCrime uses mutated human psychics to identify criminals before they act. The U.S. Army is working toward a similar goal — not by reading minds but by crunching data. Using the military records of all 975,057 soldiers who served during a six-year period, researchers have developed an algorithm they hope can help prevent severe, violent crimes by identifying those at greatest risk of becoming perpetrators. An intensive violence-prevention program “would make sense only if the interven...
