{"id":11816,"date":"2010-10-11T21:41:38","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T02:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=11816"},"modified":"2010-10-11T21:41:38","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T02:41:38","slug":"racial-disparities-and-risk-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/10\/racial-disparities-and-risk-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial Disparities and Risk Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bernard Harcourt (University of Chicago) has an interesting new paper entitled \u201cRisk as a Proxy for Race.\u201d \u00a0(A copy is available\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1677654\">here on SSRN<\/a>.) \u00a0Harcourt is responding to progressive arguments in favor of tying prison release to risk assessment:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>An increasing chorus argues, today, that risk-assessment instruments are a politically feasible method to redress our problem of mass incarceration and reduce prison populations. \u00a0The argument, in essence, is that prediction tools can identify low-risk offenders for release and thereby protect correctional authorities from the political whiplash of early release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Harcourt\u2019s concern is that risk-based early release opportunities will disproportionately benefit white inmates and thereby exacerbate racial disparities in the prison population. \u00a0He points out, \u201c[R]isk today has collapsed into prior criminal history, and prior criminal history has become a proxy for race.\u201d\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve heard variations on this argument before, but Harcourt\u2019s new paper adds some interesting historical dimensions to the analysis. \u00a0For instance, as a \u201ccautionary tale,\u201d he discusses the turn to risk-based institutionalization in the 1970\u2019s, which resulted in a dramatic increase in racial disparities in mental hospitals. \u00a0\u201d[T]he proportion of non-whites admitted to mental facilities increased from 18.3% in 1968 to 31.7% in 1978 . . . .\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harcourt also describes the explicit use of race as a predictor of dangerousness in parole decisions between the 1930\u2019s and 1970\u2019s \u2014 a shocking practice to contemporary ears. \u00a0Although criminal history may correlate closely with race, it does not seem nearly so pernicious to rely on criminal history as to rely expressly on race. \u00a0Nonetheless, I share Harcourt\u2019s sense that progressives are apt to be disappointed by risk-based early release initiatives. \u00a0Simply quantifying risk more precisely still leaves unanswered the critical ethical question of why we should want to release anyone who poses <em>any <\/em>degree of risk, no matter how small.<\/p>\n<p>Cross posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifesentencesblog.com\/?cat=16\">Life Sentences<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bernard Harcourt (University of Chicago) has an interesting new paper entitled \u201cRisk as a Proxy for Race.\u201d \u00a0(A copy is available\u00a0here on SSRN.) \u00a0Harcourt is responding to progressive arguments in favor of tying prison release to risk assessment: An increasing chorus argues, today, that risk-assessment instruments are a politically feasible method to redress our problem [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,35,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-legal-scholarship","category-race-and-the-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}