Racist Algorithms and Fair Sentencing

Can an algorithm be racist? An algorithm used to determine bail sentencing assesses the risk that an individual will reoffend. Critics claim the algorithm is unfair because it incorrectly assesses more black individuals as high risk than white.

Can an algorithm be racist? ProPublica has argued as much against an algorithm used to determine bail sentencing. The algorithm assesses the risk that an individual will reoffend. The creators of the algorithm defend it saying that black and white individuals with similar risk assessments have similar chances of reoffending.

But critics deride the algorithm because, looking just at individuals deemed high risk who didn’t end up reoffending, a lot more black individuals were incorrectly assessed as high risk in this way. (These are complicated points, and the article below should clarify them.) Can both of these claims in fact be true?

The following Washington Post article argues in the affirmative. The article points to how the creators and critics may disagree more fundamentally on what the relevant standard of fairness is.

Check out the article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/17/can-an-algorithm-be-racist-our-analysis-is-more-cautious-than-propublicas/