37 research outputs found
Case Study: Predictive Fairness to Reduce Misdemeanor Recidivism Through Social Service Interventions
The criminal justice system is currently ill-equipped to improve outcomes of
individuals who cycle in and out of the system with a series of misdemeanor
offenses. Often due to constraints of caseload and poor record linkage, prior
interactions with an individual may not be considered when an individual comes
back into the system, let alone in a proactive manner through the application
of diversion programs. The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office recently created
a new Recidivism Reduction and Drug Diversion unit (R2D2) tasked with reducing
recidivism in this population. Here we describe a collaboration with this new
unit as a case study for the incorporation of predictive equity into machine
learning based decision making in a resource-constrained setting. The program
seeks to improve outcomes by developing individually-tailored social service
interventions (i.e., diversions, conditional plea agreements, stayed
sentencing, or other favorable case disposition based on appropriate social
service linkage rather than traditional sentencing methods) for individuals
likely to experience subsequent interactions with the criminal justice system,
a time and resource-intensive undertaking that necessitates an ability to focus
resources on individuals most likely to be involved in a future case. Seeking
to achieve both efficiency (through predictive accuracy) and equity (improving
outcomes in traditionally under-served communities and working to mitigate
existing disparities in criminal justice outcomes), we discuss the equity
outcomes we seek to achieve, describe the corresponding choice of a metric for
measuring predictive fairness in this context, and explore a set of options for
balancing equity and efficiency when building and selecting machine learning
models in an operational public policy setting.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 algorithm. The definitive Version of Record
will be published in the proceedings of the Conference on Fairness,
Accountability, and Transparency (FAT* '20), January 27-30, 2020, Barcelona,
Spai
Trying Not to Be Like Sisyphus: Can Defense Counsel Overcome Pervasive Status Quo Bias in the Criminal Justice System?
Discerning the margins of constitutional encroachment: The drug courier profile in the airport milieu
Extreme cases and the criminal justice system: responses to a traumatic sexual assault in India
Performance Evaluation of the Scent Transfer Unittm (STU-100) for Organic Compound Collection and Release
Police surveillance of cell phone location data: Supreme Court versus public opinion
The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. As technology evolves, courts must examine Fourth Amendment concerns implicated by the introduction of new and enhanced police surveillance techniques. Recent Supreme Court cases have demonstrated a trend towards reconsidering the mechanical application of traditional Fourth Amendment doctrine to define the scope of constitutional protections for modern technological devices and personal data. The current research examined whether public opinion regarding privacy rights in electronic communications is in accordance with these Supreme Court rulings. Results suggest that cell phone location data is perceived as more private and deserving of protections than other types of location data, but the privacy of other types of information recorded on cell phones is valued even more than location data. These results have implications for the police and courts considering how the Fourth Amendment will apply to smart phone technologies