scholarly journals Personalized Risk Assessments in the Criminal Justice System

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 119-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharad Goel ◽  
Justin M. Rao ◽  
Ravi Shroff
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
New York ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
Personalized Risk

In an effort to bring greater efficiency, equity, and transparency to the criminal justice system, statistical risk assessment tools are increasingly used to inform bail, sentencing, and parole decisions. We examine New York City's stop-and-frisk program, and propose two new use cases for personalized risk assessments. First, we show that risk assessment tools can help police officers make considerably better real-time stop decisions. Second, we show that such tools can help audit past actions; in particular, we argue that a sizable fraction of police stops were conducted on the basis of little evidence, in possible violation of constitutional protections.

scholarly journals Inclusion and Exclusion Through Risk-based Justice: Analysing Combinations of Risk Assessment from Pretrial Detention to Release

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 1080-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen van Eijk
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Ethical Judgement ◽  
Pretrial Detention ◽  
Informed Decisions ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Multiple Risk

Abstract As the use of risk-based practices has proliferated in many jurisdictions, justice-involved individuals are often subjected to multiple risk assessments at various moments and with different purposes as they move through the criminal justice system. This article examines the ways in which different risk-based practices are combined and evaluates these combinations in terms of inclusion and exclusion of marginalized offender categories. By understanding risk-based practices in terms of the distribution of resources, the article conceptualizes how the accumulation of bias could exacerbate exclusionary effects and how contradictory risk-informed decisions could undermine inclusionary interventions. Understanding the interplay of different risk-based practices is essential for the practical and ethical judgement of risk-based justice.

scholarly journals ‘I’m not getting out of bed!’ The criminalisation of young people in residential care

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Gerard ◽  
Andrew McGrath ◽  
Emma Colvin ◽  
Kath McFarlane
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Residential Care ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Children In Care

Evidence from both Australian and international jurisdictions show that children in residential care are over-represented in the criminal justice system. In the current study, we interviewed 46 professionals who had contact with young people in residential care settings in New South Wales, Australia. Our sample included police officers, residential care service providers, legal aid lawyers and juvenile justice workers, about their perceptions of the link between residential care and contact with the criminal justice system. Factors identified by the participants included the care environment itself, use of police as a behavioural management tool, deficient staff training and inadequate policies and funding to address the over-representation. These factors, combined with the legacy of Australia’s colonial past, were a particularly potent source of criminalisation for Aboriginal children in care.

The Crime of Freedom

2018 ◽  
pp. 217-246
Author(s):  
Adam Malka
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Black People ◽  
Racial Violence

Slavery in Maryland died during the 1860s, but for all of their promise the changes also brought heartbreak. As Chapter 7 shows, black men’s acquisition of a fuller bundle of property rights and legal protections brought them into conflict with the very criminal justice system built to guard those rights and ensure those protections. White commentators scoffed at black men’s supposed indolence and bristled at their households’ apparent disorder; police officers arrested black Baltimoreans for an expanding list of crimes; and black people, black men in particular, were incarcerated at growing rates. During the years immediately following the Civil War, Baltimore’s policemen and prisons perpetrated a form of racial violence that was different from yet indicative of the violence inflicted by the old order’s vigilantes. Castigated as criminals, freedmen’s legal victories provoked a form of policing reserved for the truly free.

Automated Risk Assessment in the Criminal Justice Process

Prejudice ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Endre Begby
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Institutionalized Racism ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
History Of ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Algorithmic Bias

This chapter addresses recent concerns about “algorithmic bias,” specifically in the context of the criminal justice process. Starting from a recent controversy about the use of “automated risk assessment tools” in criminal sentencing and parole hearings, where evidence suggests that such tools effectively discriminate against minority defendants, this chapter argues that the problem here has nothing in particular to do with algorithm-assisted reasoning, nor is it in any clear sense a case of epistemic bias. Rather, given the data set that we are given to work with, there is reason to think that no improvement to our epistemic routines would deliver significantly better results. Instead, the bias is effectively encoded into the data set itself, via a long history of institutionalized racism. This suggests a different diagnosis of the problem: in deeply divided societies, there may just be no way to simultaneously satisfy our moral ideals and our epistemic ideals.

Principles and practices of risk assessment in mental health jail diversion programs

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 593-603
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Desmarais ◽  
Evan M. Lowder
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Public Safety ◽  
The Body ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Diversion Programs ◽  
Jail Diversion ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
The Impact

Eligibility criteria for participation in mental health jail diversion programs often specify that, to be diverted, a candidate must not pose a level of threat to public safety that cannot be managed in the community. Risk assessment tools were developed to increase consistency and accuracy in estimates of threat to public safety. Consequently, risk assessment tools are being used in many jurisdictions to inform decisions regarding an individual’s appropriateness and eligibility for mental health jail diversion and the strategies that may be successful in mitigating risk in this context. However, their use is not without controversy. Questions have been raised regarding the validity and equity of their estimates, as well as the impact of their use on criminal justice outcomes. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the science and practice of risk assessment to inform decisions and case planning in the context of mental health jail diversion programs. Our specific aims include: (1) to describe the process and components of risk assessment, including differentiating between different approaches to risk assessment, and (2) to consider the use of risk assessment tools in mental health jail diversion programs. We anchor this review in relevant theory and extant research, noting current controversies or debates and areas for future research. Overall, there is strong theoretical justification and empirical evidence from other criminal justice contexts; however, the body of research on the use of risk assessment tools in mental health jail diversion programs, although promising, is relatively nascent.

A Preliminary Assessment of Police Officers' Knowledge and Perceptions of Persons With Disabilities

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott J. Modell ◽  
Suzanna Mak
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Police Officer ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crime Victims ◽  
Preliminary Assessment ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Number Of Factors

Abstract Individuals with developmental disabilities are 4 to 10 times more likely to become crime victims than individuals without disabilities (D. Sobsey, D. Wells, R. Lucardie, & S. Mansell, 1995). Victimization rates for persons with disabilities is highest for sexual assault (more than 10 times as high) and robbery (more than 12 times as high). There are a number of factors related to individuals' with disabilities susceptibility to interactions with the criminal justice system. In addition to these factors, many significant barriers exist, both real and perceived, that limit investigation and prosecution of these cases. How police officers perceive and understand disability play significant roles in how these cases develop and evolve. The purpose of this study was to assess police officer knowledge and perceptions of persons with disabilities.

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