COMPAS assigned higher risk scores to Black defendants who did not reoffend

Evidence

The first, Dylan Fugett, had a prior offense of attempted burglary; the second, Bernard Packer, had a prior offense of nonviolently resisting arrest. Fugett, who is White, was assigned a risk score of 3/10. Packer, who is Black, was assigned a risk score of 10/10. … From the crystal ball of 2016, they also knew that Fugett, the 3/10 risk, went on to be convicted of three further drug offenses. Over the same time period, Packer, the 10/10 risk, had a clean record. — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 36

ProPublica analyzed 10,000 cases in one Florida county and found that Blacks (compared with Whites) were almost twice as likely to be scored as high-risk to reoffend but then not reoffend. Whites seemed to get off easy. They were more likely than Blacks to be labeled lowrisk but then reoffend. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1164

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s theme of bias and blind spots in systems assumed neutral; a vivid instance of algorithmic disparity. — connects to: COMPAS misjudged Black and White defendants in systematically opposite ways. — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 279; COMPAS errors fall unequally on Black and White defendants — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 279; ProPublica tested COMPAS recidivism predictions against actual reoffense outcomes for bias (+3 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 36; Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 1164

Broader Connections

• COMPAS errors fall unequally on Black and White defendants #expands (0.75) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 279
• ProPublica tested COMPAS recidivism predictions against actual reoffense outcomes for bias #corroborates (0.70)
• Blackness itself is criminalized as a threat irrespective of acts #exemplifies (0.65)
• Crime statistics historically constructed Blackness as criminal #expands (0.60) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 2727