Isn't "unconscious bias" merely humans using their instinctual bayesian reasoning systems as priors? I don't see how it's possible to eliminate that, nor that the outcome would necessarily be desirable. Educating people that there are certain biases they shouldn't bring into the courtroom is a proposed solution, but I don't think it gets us anywhere closer to the platonic ideal of objective justice. It just mucks with the bayesian priors in a way that favored activists desire.
Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
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Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#12Isn't "unconscious bias" merely humans using their instinctual bayesian reasoning systems as priors? I don't see how it's possible to eliminate that, nor that the outcome would necessarily be desirable. Educating people that there are certain biases they shouldn't bring into the courtroom is a proposed solution, but I don't think it gets us anywhere closer to the platonic ideal of objective justice. It just mucks wit…
I've pretty much never personally seen a violent/property crime committed by someone else. Don't think I've ever been witness to a mugging, or a store getting held up, or a car getting stolen.
What I have seen is media reports and then, even more vividly than news reports, movie and TV portrayals, of such and other crimes.
So now, any pattern-matching I do on "this is the type of person who does that type of thing" isn't based on my own experiences, it's based on the ones people have shown me. So maybe there were things influenced what got reported on, or what types of people get written into stories in what roles—aka my bias would be based on other people's bias which would be based on... as well as questions about what types of crimes get reported on/turned into movies, etc. Violence sells, etc. This is problematic for the idea that "bias" is just the brain doing reliable and sophisticated analysis of trustworthy data.
Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#13Unconscious racial bias comes up a lot in these issues. Yet I am at a loss to see a mechanism by which we could even begin to remedy it. What steps could proposed programs take?
Lots of ideas come to mind. Probably all bad ideas, but ideas nonetheless: * Judges and juries are only allowed to be the same race as the defendant. * Increase/decrease the sentencing guidelines by X% for a certain race. 20 years max for a certain offense for Race Y, 15 years max for Race Z. * Preferentially give better public defenders to people of certain races, or maybe just give them money to hire non-public def…
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Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines not being snarky; i think this one is a clear 'No.'
"No" usually is the correct answer to a Betteridge Headline.
Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#15Isn't "unconscious bias" merely humans using their instinctual bayesian reasoning systems as priors? I don't see how it's possible to eliminate that, nor that the outcome would necessarily be desirable. Educating people that there are certain biases they shouldn't bring into the courtroom is a proposed solution, but I don't think it gets us anywhere closer to the platonic ideal of objective justice. It just mucks wit…
I've pretty much never personally seen a violent/property crime committed by someone else. Don't think I've ever been witness to a mugging, or a store getting held up, or a car getting stolen. What I have seen is media reports and then, even more vividly than news reports, movie and TV portrayals, of such and other crimes. So now, any pattern-matching I do on "this is the type of person who does that type of thing" i…
Why have juries at all? Clearly a "jury of one's peers" is wholly unsuitable for the job, based on that logic. Which is a fair argument, but insincere when approached from the angle that what we need to get rid of is unconscious bias.
Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of ideas come to mind. Probably all bad ideas, but ideas nonetheless: * Judges and juries are only allowed to be the same race as the defendant. * Increase/decrease the sentencing guidelines by X% for a certain race. 20 years max for a certain offense for Race Y, 15 years max for Race Z. * Preferentially give better public defenders to people of certain races, or maybe just give them money to hire non-public def…
> Judges and juries are only allowed to be the same race as the defendant. So if a white cop shoots a black person and is arrested for it, the judge and jury should all be white? Sounds about right. They do say "jury of your peers", so a jury of white cops would be ideal in this case.
Good point. Change that one to:
* Judges and juries are only allowed to be people of the disadvantaged race
No more white judges or jury members would shake things up a bit.
Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
If we accept that unconscious bias is a fact, the only real solution is to eliminate the possibility for unconscious bias. To fully do this, you'd need an environment in which all parties are mutually identity-blind. Some kind of virtual courtroom where everyone assumes a "neutral" avatar and speaks through a synthesized voice (again, "neutral") might approximate this. How would you get there from here? First, you'd…
Part of the point of jury-of-your-peers trials is so people can use their biases to make subjective decisions based on their life experience. The tone/inflection/appearance of the defendant plays into all of that. What you are suggesting would eliminate that. Why have juries at all, then?
Yes. Why having easily manipulable group of people, instead of professional judges that are used to lawyers and criminal BS ?
Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#18Oh cuil. The red herring of race takes hold, distracting people away from the universal brokenness of a clock-punching judicial system that assumes everyone is guilty, police that operate with impunity, and general lack of civil recompense for victims of wrongful arrest and prosecution.
The system is far from the lofty ideal you were taught in civics class, regardless of one's skin color. Fixing the fundamental issues must be done first in order to even make racial bias legible and to have an ideal to work towards.
Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#19If personal bias plays a part in increasing the amount of arrests and prosecutions for a certain subpopulation, then by definition reducing the domain of law enforcement reduces the impact of personal bias. Prohibition of substances, gambling and prostitution,the overcriminilization of our society, "zero-tolerance" policies, and increasing regulatory oversight of every facet of our lives have had the net result that the personal biases of government officials have become insufferable to those most affected by it. I just hope that the conversation shifts away from "Who should be in charge?" to "Should we have so many people in charge?".
Re: Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of the point of jury-of-your-peers trials is so people can use their biases to make subjective decisions based on their life experience. The tone/inflection/appearance of the defendant plays into all of that. What you are suggesting would eliminate that. Why have juries at all, then?
Yes. Why having easily manipulable group of people, instead of professional judges that are used to lawyers and criminal BS ?
"Juries are often justified because they leaven the law with community norms."
"Discussions among juries could lead to more thorough consideration of all aspects of the case." (see: 12 Angry Men)
"Occasionally jurors find the law to be invalid or unfair, and on that basis acquit the defendant, regardless of the evidence presented that the defendant violated the law. This is commonly referred to as "jury nullification of law" or simply jury nullification."
"It may be more difficult to corrupt 12 jurors than one or several judges."