The Debate and Concerns of Risk Assessment with Historically Marginalized Populations

Abstract

There is a growing discourse concerning the burgeoning use of risk assessment and its potential disparate implications for minority populations. The reliance of these actuarial assessments on aggregated criminal record data and propensities, tied to various demographic characteristics including race and ethnicity, has sparked some intense debate from legal and social science scholars alike. Some argue, for example, that pretrial risk assessment instruments will, even if not the intent, exacerbate implicit racial biases in criminal justice processing. Minority populations may suffer further consequences due in part to the historical context in which the data fueling their assessments is derived. In other words, the assessments will reflect past biases in police surveillance, detection, and apprehension. This bias is then further promulgated throughout the system. Further, too often instruments are normed primarily with White male populations, their applicability to minority populations (including Native American populations) and across sex remains tenuous. This chapter discusses the growing use of risk assessment throughout the criminal justice process (i.e., pretrial, jails, prisons, probation, and parole), growing criticisms and caution levied in terms of their potential to perpetuate preexisting biases, the extent to which their validity has been substantiated, and the continued lack of legal accountability and transparency in relation to proprietary instruments.