Courts are using risk-assessment software to sentence criminals

Re:Courts are using risk-assessment software to sentence cri... by humanrebar on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @01:35PM (#14140937)

> ...other correlated factors will allow the algorithm to continue to enforce this racism, but now with legal immunity.

I'm sympathetic, but how do we keep from causing more harm than good here? It seems like blindly ignoring all data that correlates with race is also bad. We do this in some circumstances already (i.e., IQ tests when doing hiring or admissions) and I think it's a defensible point that we're worse off for it.

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Re:Courts are using risk-assessment software to sentence cri... by hackuser on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @01:51PM (#14141106)

> blindly ignoring all data that correlates with race is also bad

This is a very theoretical, futuristic red herring. Race factors into decision-making far, far too much. It's like worrying that if someone developed a perfect, bug-free crypto library, then everyone would use it and we'd have a monoculture - not really a present concern, and in fact a good problem to have (nor is it an eloquent analogy, but I have to run).

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Re:Courts are using risk-assessment software to sentence cri... by humanrebar on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @02:39PM (#14141587)

I can't really tell if you are for or against algorithmic sentencing from this post.

I think there are fair existing examples both for and against it, so I'm not sure calling either position futuristic or theoretical is fair.

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