Simulated Justice: Risk, Money and Telemetric Policing

New forms of 'simulated' justice and policing are emerging at the convergence of telemetric regulation with two linked trends: the monetization of justice and the development of risk-based technologies of governance. A definitive example is the traffic fine, where, increasingly, the offence is electronically monitored, calibrated, monetized into a fine, the fine issued and expiated in simulated space—that point at which the real and the virtual converge. While all of this is very 'real' (real money is primarily electronic and digitized), binary codes rather than liberal individuals are focal. Key forms of simulated justice operate beyond the reach of 'individual rights' as liberal individuals are fragmented into simulated 'dividuals' and commodified privileges rather than rights become critical to everyday life.