Artificial intelligence (AI) tools
are supporting a growing range of activities in policing, courts,
corrections, and community supervision, from facial recognition and
automated police report writing to case scheduling, classification, and
violence prediction. This RAND report, produced for the Council on Criminal
Justice Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, says that while these
applications differ widely in their technical sophistication, intended use,
and influence on human judgment, they are often discussed and governed as
if they were a single category of technology.
As a result, there is limited
shared understanding of how different AI tools function, where they are
deployed, and how their risks and benefits vary across the criminal justice
system. Closing this gap in understanding is essential to help system
leaders and policymakers evaluate whether specific AI tools
are appropriate, effective, transparent, and equitable—particularly in
decisions that affect public safety and individual rights.
This report examines the scope and character of AI use in the criminal justice system
by presenting a taxonomy of current and emerging AI applications and
offering findings and recommendations for navigating risks, opportunities,
and governance gaps. The taxonomy groups applications by the functions and
decision points they support, illuminating uses across law enforcement,
courts, corrections, and community supervision and reflecting how similar
technologies may serve different purposes across settings. It is designed
to support stakeholders responsible for evaluating, procuring, and
implementing AI technologies, as well as state policy officials making
technology decisions for their justice systems.
The CCJ Task Force on AI was launched in June 2025 to develop principles, standards, and research
guidance for AI use in the criminal justice system. The Task Force has also
produced Assessing AI for Criminal Justice: A User Decision Framework. This
taxonomy describes the landscape of AI tools in criminal justice; the
framework offers practitioners and policymakers a process for evaluating,
deploying, and overseeing these tools in practice.
