The thug department of Pasco, Florida, secretly profiles all children based on personal data collected by their schools and other government agencies. It uses the profiles to estimate whether they are likely to end up as criminals. Such predictions tend to be self-fulfilling.

Victoria (a state in Australia) does something similar.

If we had a reliable and helpful form of intervention to help children avoid that fate, these profiles could be used to good effect. But we don't know of any way, so they tend to be used to do harm.

Progressive programs such as a higher minimum wage, a better welfare system, and a national medical system, could help a lot of children avoid becoming criminals, and it wouldn't be necessary to try to predict which children were personally in the most danger.