scholarly journals Abolish! Against the Use of Risk Assessment Algorithms at Sentencing in the US Criminal Justice System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia Schwerzmann
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
The Us

AbstractIn this article, I show why it is necessary to abolish the use of predictive algorithms in the US criminal justice system at sentencing. After presenting the functioning of these algorithms in their context of emergence, I offer three arguments to demonstrate why their abolition is imperative. First, I show that sentencing based on predictive algorithms induces a process of rewriting the temporality of the judged individual, flattening their life into a present inescapably doomed by its past. Second, I demonstrate that recursive processes, comprising predictive algorithms and the decisions based on their predictions, systematically suppress outliers and progressively transform reality to match predictions. In my third and final argument, I show that decisions made on the basis of predictive algorithms actively perform a biopolitical understanding of justice as management and modulation of risks. In such a framework, justice becomes a means to maintain a perverse social homeostasis that systematically exposes disenfranchised Black and Brown populations to risk.

Machine-Learnt Bias? Algorithmic Decision Making and Access to Criminal Justice

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-100
Author(s):  
Malwina Anna Wojcik
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crime Mapping ◽  
The Us ◽  
Court Proceedings ◽  
The Uk

The pressure on the criminal justice system in England and Wales is mounting. Recent figures reveal that despite a rise in recorded crime, the number of defendants in court proceedings has been the lowest in 50 years. This indicates a crisis of access to criminal justice. Predictive policing and risk assessment programmes based on algorithmic decision making (ADM) offer a prospect of increasing efficiency of law enforcement, eliminating delays and cutting the costs. These technologies are already used in the UK for crime-mapping and facilitating decisions regarding prosecution of arrested individuals. In the US their deployment is much wider, covering also sentencing and parole applications.

scholarly journals Mercy towards decarceration: Examining the legal constraints on early release from prison

Incarceration ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632097780
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cox ◽  
Dwayne Betts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Release ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Release From Prison

There are close to seven million people under correctional supervision in the United States, both in prison and in the community. The US criminal justice system is widely regarded as an inherently unmerciful institution by scholars and policymakers but also by people who have spent time in prison and their family members; it is deeply punitive, racist, expansive and damaging in its reach. In this article, we probe the meanings of mercy for the institution of parole.

10. Race, ethnicities, and the criminal justice system

2021 ◽  
pp. 273-307
Author(s):  
Neena Samota
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Justice System ◽  
State Level ◽  
System P ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk

This chapter explores the broader context and history of race-related issues in the UK, considering why racial disparities persist in diverse societies like the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK, before narrowing the focus to race and ethnicity in the sphere of crime and criminal justice. The concepts of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ have long played major roles in both classroom and broader societal discussions about crime, punishment, and justice, but they have arguably never been more present and visible than today. The chapter looks at the problems with the statistics available on race, ethnicity, and crime, noting the ways in which they may not tell the whole story, before considering the statistics themselves as the chapter discusses the relationships between ethnicity and victimisation and offending. It then moves on to how ethnic minorities experience the various elements of the criminal justice system and the disadvantages they often face, before outlining the attempts that have been made to address these disparities at a state level. Finally, the chapter discusses critical race theory, a key theory in modern criminological examinations of race and its relationship to crime and justice, which grew out of the US but has much broader value and relevance as a framework of analysis.

The Neuroscience of Criminality and Our Sense of Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Hardcastle
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Brain Scan ◽  
Sense Of Justice

Part IV begins with Valerie Hardcastle’s chapter on the neuroscience of criminality and our sense of justice. Taking the US courts as her stalking horse, Hardcastle analyzes appellate cases from the past five years in which a brain scan was cited as a consideration in the decision. She focuses on how a defendant’s race might be correlated with whether he is able to get a brain scan, whether the scan is admitted into evidence, how the scan is used in the trial, and whether the scan changes the outcome of the hearing. She then provides a comparative analysis of the cases in which imaging data were successful in altering the sentence of defendants and those in which the data were unsuccessful. She concludes by pointing to larger trends in our criminal justice system indicative of more profound changes in how we as a society understand what counts as a just punishment.

scholarly journals “Seek, test, treat and retain” for hepatitis C in the United States criminal justice system

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Larney ◽  
Curt G. Beckwith ◽  
Nickolas D. Zaller ◽  
Brian T. Montague ◽  
Josiah Rich
Keyword(s):  
Hepatitis C ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Chronic Hcv

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the potential benefits and challenges of applying a strategy of “seek, test, treat and retain” (STTR) to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the US criminal justice system. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw on the published literature to illustrate how each component of STTR could be applied to HCV in the US criminal justice system, and describe challenges to the implementation of this strategy. Findings – The burden of morbidity and mortality associated with chronic HCV infection in the USA is increasing and without significantly increased treatment uptake, will likely continue to do so for several decades. The authors argue that the US criminal justice system is an ideal focus for HCV case finding and treatment due to a high prevalence of infection and large volume of individuals in contact with this system. STTR would identify large numbers of HCV infections, leading to opportunities for secondary prevention and primary care. Important challenges to the implementation of STTR include treatment costs and training of prison medical providers. Originality/value – This paper highlights opportunities to address HCV in the US criminal justice system.

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