The Access to Justice Lab
at Harvard Law School
Last week, we marked the launch of our PSA RCT in Dane County, Wisconsin. Starting today, I will be pulling back the field experiment curtain, as it were, and introducing some of the A2J Lab’s field partners. These Dane County employees have worked tirelessly for almost two years to make the PSA’s implementation and our concurrent evaluation possible.
[Read more…] about A2J Lab “Behind the Experiment”: Dane County Part I
First, a confession: flossing and I enjoy a complicated relationship. I do it, but not as consistently as four out of five dentists might prefer. Yet, using several other dental hygiene implements, I somehow emerge from biannual checkups with pretty solid marks. And it seems I have (the absence of consistent) science on my side!
Greetings from Indianapolis and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) annual conference! The proceedings have gathered many of the best minds and providers in the legal services field. There is real momentum for collecting data, making use of promising technologies, and implementing evidence-based practices. All great news for the A2J Lab.
[Read more…] about The Rise of Experimental Methods in the Law
In a previous post, I considered some of the less convincing critiques of pretrial and sentencing risk assessments that sound in the ecological fallacy. The fallacy argument mistakenly targets risk scores as applying only group inferences to individual case decision-making. The takeaway was straightforward. A comprehensive understanding of actuarial tools must include rigorous counterfactual thinking about a state of the world in which they aren’t available. In this follow-up, I discuss an even more serious claim: that actuarial tools might lead to unjustifiable racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes.
[Read more…] about Fear and Loathing over Risk Assessments Part 2
Nate Silver’s widely heralded FiveThirtyEight.com site now tracks more than just presidential elections. He and his colleagues apply statistical modeling or reasoning to everything from the Emmys to ERAs. Just over a year ago, its contributors–in collaboration with the Marshall Project (which itself is funded by the A2J Lab’s sponsor, the Arnold Foundation)–released a feature on the use of pretrial and sentencing risk assessments. So, too, did investigative journalists at ProPublica.
Both pieces raised serious questions about the use of risk scoring mechanisms. Should officials base decisions about individual arrestees or convicted defendants on aggregate data from other cases? Is there any evidence that these tools are racially biased? Former Attorney General Eric Holder previously voiced those concerns, best captured in his statement: “Although these measures were crafted with the best of intentions, I am concerned that they inadvertently undermine our efforts to ensure individualized and equal justice. . . . [T]hey may exacerbate unwarranted and unjust disparities that are already far too common in our criminal justice system and in our society.” [Read more…] about Fear and Loathing over Risk Assessments Part 1
Using empirical research to make the U.S. justice system work better for everyone.