precrime

American  

[pree-krahym] / priˈkraɪm /

adjective

1. of or relating to law-enforcement efforts and strategies to deter crime by predicting when and where criminal activity will occur.

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Etymology

Origin of precrime

Coined in 1956 by Philip K. Dick in his science-fiction short story “The Minority Report”; pre- + crime

Example Sentences

Minority Report disappoints because, in its first episode at least, it is uninterested in the very idea that enlivened the film: that precrime could be wrong.

From Slate • Sep. 9, 2015

All the villains that Dash and Lara are going to have to catch every week were arrested during precrime, placed in “Haloes,” solitary devices that made them go crazy, and released after precrime ended.

From Slate • Sep. 9, 2015

The 2002 film starred Tom Cruise as a rogue member of a special "precrime" police unit in charge of preventing murders by looking into the future.

From The Verge • Jan. 9, 2015

Philip K Dick, patron saint of American paranoia, wrote Minority Report in 1956, in which the precrime police of Washington DC claim to foresee crimes in order to prevent them.

From The Guardian • Jun. 16, 2013

“The best thing is for them to return to their precrime existence as quickly as possible and not to have an involuntary identity as ‘that child,’” says Finkelhor.

From Time • Feb. 6, 2013