Main content
Algorithms, Crime and Punishment
When maths can get you locked up.
A drive-by shooting in the US midwest has raised fundamental questions about how algorithms are being used in the country's criminal justice system. A defendant in the case was put behind bars after an algorithm used by the court calculated that he was at high risk of reoffending. The risk assessment algorithm crunches data about defendants' past criminal history and from their answers to a questionnaire to come up with the risk score. It's supposed to help make decisions less subjective, but one recent analysis found that the algorithm was biased against black people.
(Photo: A guard walking down a cell block. Credit: Getty Images)
Last on
Mon 17 Oct 2016
14:50GMT
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service except News Internet
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Fri 14 Oct 2016 21:50GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service except East and Southern Africa & News Internet
- Mon 17 Oct 2016 01:50GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Mon 17 Oct 2016 02:50GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Online, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Mon 17 Oct 2016 03:50GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service East Asia & South Asia only
- Mon 17 Oct 2016 04:50GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Australasia
- Mon 17 Oct 2016 06:50GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service East and Southern Africa & Europe and the Middle East only
- Mon 17 Oct 2016 14:50GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service except News Internet