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"Risk as a Proxy for Race"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper by Professor Bernard Harcourt available via SSRN. Here is the abstract: Today, an increasing chorus argues that risk-assessment instruments are a politically feasible way to resolve our problem of mass incarceration and reduce prison populations. In this essay, I argue against this progressive argument for prediction: using risk-assessment tools to decrease prison populations would unquestionably aggravate the already intolerable racial imbalance in our prison populations and will not address the real source of mass incarceration, namely the admissions process. Risk has collapsed into prior criminal history, and prior criminal history has become a proxy for race.  This means that using risk-assessment tools, even for progressive ends, is going to significantly aggravate the already unacceptable racial disparities in our criminal justice system...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 21, 2010 (boomark / email).