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"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection."
- Arthur C. Clarke

Post-Crime  
  Criminal activities after they have actually happened.  

You're probably thinking that this is just some sort of needlessly picky sf word. See below.

As they walked along the busy, yellow-lit tiers of offices, Anderton said: "You're acquainted with the theory of precrime, of course. I presume we can take that for granted."

"I have the information publicly available," Witwer said. "With the aid of your precog mutants, you've boldly and successfully abolished the post-crime punitive system of punishments and jails. As we all realize, punishment was never much of a deterrent, and could scarcely have afforded comfort to a victim already dead."

Technovelgy from The Minority Report, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Fantastic Universe in 1956
Additional resources -

Read more about precrime.

"Post-crime" is one of those great sf words that put the ordinary world into a surreal light, like "groundcar" for an ordinary automobile (as opposed to an "aircar"), or a "static home" (as opposed to a "psychotropic house") or inert-wear (as opposed to bio-fabric clothes that moved on their own).

This word may already be needed in the real world. It turns out that criminal profilers working for the London Metropolitan Police's Homicide Prevention Unit are putting together a list of 100 future murderers. See 'Precrime' Database For London Homicide Prevention Unit for details.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Minority Report
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to The Minority Report
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

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