Recidivism prediction instruments (RPI's) provide decision makers with an assessment of the likelihood that a criminal defendant will reoffend at a future point in time. While such instruments are gaining increasing popularity across the country, their use is attracting tremendous controversy. Much of the controversy c…
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48 results for “recidivism data”
Recidivism prediction scores are used across the USA to determine sentencing and supervision for hundreds of thousands of inmates. One such generator of recidivism prediction scores is Northpointe's Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) score, used in states like California and F…
Recidivism prediction instruments provide decision makers with an assessment of the likelihood that a criminal defendant will reoffend at a future point in time. While such instruments are gaining increasing popularity across the country, their use is attracting tremendous controversy. Much of the controversy concerns …
Recidivism prediction provides decision makers with an assessment of the likelihood that a criminal defendant will reoffend that can be used in pre-trial decision-making. It can also be used for prediction of locations where crimes most occur, profiles that are more likely to commit violent crimes. While such instrumen…
When might human input help (or not) when assessing risk in fairness domains? Dressel and Farid (2018) asked Mechanical Turk workers to evaluate a subset of defendants in the ProPublica COMPAS data for risk of recidivism, and concluded that COMPAS predictions were no more accurate or fair than predictions made by human…
In Pursuit of Interpretable, Fair and Accurate Machine Learning for Criminal Recidivism Predictionstat.ML
Interpretable ML models predict recidivism as well as non-interpretable methods and are more fair.
problem Improving recidivism prediction models for fairness and interpretability.
method Trained interpretable ML models on two recidivism datasets, compared to existing methods, and analyzed fairness.
result Interpretable ML models can predict recidivism as well as non-interpretable methods and are more fair.
ProPublica's analysis of recidivism predictions produced by Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) software tool for the task, has shown that the predictions were racially biased against African American defendants. We analyze the COMPAS data using a causal reformulation of the un…
Domestic violence (DV) is a global social and public health issue that is highly gendered. Being able to accurately predict DV recidivism, i.e., re-offending of a previously convicted offender, can speed up and improve risk assessment procedures for police and front-line agencies, better protect victims of DV, and pote…
We present new methods to estimate causal effects retrospectively from micro data with the assistance of a machine learning ensemble. This approach overcomes two important limitations in conventional methods like regression modeling or matching: (i) ambiguity about the pertinent retrospective counterfactuals and (ii) p…
A new method assesses algorithmic fairness using game theory.
problem Evaluating algorithmic fairness without proprietary data.
method Cohort Shapley value, a game-theoretic approach.
result Identifies individual impact of protected attributes.
Develops a new criterion for subgroup fairness in algorithmic decision support.
problem Identifying fair recommendations in algorithms despite group-level differences.
method IJDI criterion and IJDI-Scan approach to detect and mitigate disparities.
result Identifies significant disparities in recommendations across subpopulations.
Framework for assessing fairness across similar predictive models.
problem Fairness in predictive models across different groups.
method Develops a framework for characterizing fairness over the set of good models under selective labels.
result Framework can replace or audit models for better fairness properties.
We investigate a long-debated question, which is how to create predictive models of recidivism that are sufficiently accurate, transparent, and interpretable to use for decision-making. This question is complicated as these models are used to support different decisions, from sentencing, to determining release on proba…
Proposes a robust method for counterfactual classification.
problem Decision-making under hypothetical scenarios.
method Doubly-robust nonparametric estimator for counterfactual classification.
result Robust against nuisance model misspecification, can attain fast rates.
Machine learning algorithms are increasingly involved in sensitive decision-making process with adversarial implications on individuals. This paper presents mdfa, an approach that identifies the characteristics of the victims of a classifier's discrimination. We measure discrimination as a violation of multi-differenti…
Machine learning improves risk assessment for gender-based violence victims.
problem Accurately predicting recidivism risk in gender-based crime victims.
method Applied machine learning techniques to create models predicting recidivism risk.
result Proposed ML method outperforms classical statistical methods.
Non-discrimination is a recognized objective in algorithmic decision making. In this paper, we introduce a novel probabilistic formulation of data pre-processing for reducing discrimination. We propose a convex optimization for learning a data transformation with three goals: controlling discrimination, limiting distor…
We study an online classification problem with partial feedback in which individuals arrive one at a time from a fixed but unknown distribution, and must be classified as positive or negative. Our algorithm only observes the true label of an individual if they are given a positive classification. This setting captures …
Local discovery method uncovers direct unfairness in complex systems.
problem Identifying causal pathways of unfairness in complex domains.
method Local discovery for direct discrimination (LD3) method.
result LD3 returns a valid adjustment set (VAS) for assessing unfairness.
Develops a fair relational model learning algorithm.
problem Fairness in machine learning models for relational data.
method Fair-A3SL, a fairness-aware structure learning algorithm for relational structures.
result Demonstrates effectiveness in learning fair, interpretable, and expressive structures.
We propose definitions of fairness in machine learning and artificial intelligence systems that are informed by the framework of intersectionality, a critical lens arising from the Humanities literature which analyzes how interlocking systems of power and oppression affect individuals along overlapping dimensions inclu…
Methods for interpreting machine learning black-box models increase the outcomes' transparency and in turn generates insight into the reliability and fairness of the algorithms. However, the interpretations themselves could contain significant uncertainty that undermines the trust in the outcomes and raises concern abo…
The paper assesses fairness in risk score models, focusing on epistemic value.
problem Fairness of risk score models in communicating uncertainty.
method Identified key fairness desiderata, developed metrics for quantitative assessment, and applied methodology in two case studies.
result Introduced a novel calibration error metric for meaningful comparisons between groups of different sizes.
We explore the problem of learning under selective labels in the context of algorithm-assisted decision making. Selective labels is a pervasive selection bias problem that arises when historical decision making blinds us to the true outcome for certain instances. Examples of this are common in many applications, rangin…
Intersectionality is a framework that analyzes how interlocking systems of power and oppression affect individuals along overlapping dimensions including race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and disability. Intersectionality theory therefore implies it is important that fairness in artificial intelligence systems b…
Machine learning (ML) can automate decision-making by learning to predict decisions from historical data. However, these predictors may inherit discriminatory policies from past decisions and reproduce unfair decisions. In this paper, we propose two algorithms that adjust fitted ML predictors to make them fair. We focu…
Develops tools to audit ML models for bias and unfairness.
problem Auditing ML models for individual bias and unfairness.
method Formalizes the task as an optimization problem and develops inferential tools for the optimal value.
result Demonstrates the utility of tools in revealing biases in COMPAS recidivism prediction instrument.
We revisit the notion of individual fairness proposed by Dwork et al. A central challenge in operationalizing their approach is the difficulty in eliciting a human specification of a similarity metric. In this paper, we propose an operationalization of individual fairness that does not rely on a human specification of …
We present a novel subset scan method to detect if a probabilistic binary classifier has statistically significant bias -- over or under predicting the risk -- for some subgroup, and identify the characteristics of this subgroup. This form of model checking and goodness-of-fit test provides a way to interpretably detec…
Prediction problems often admit competing models that perform almost equally well. This effect challenges key assumptions in machine learning when competing models assign conflicting predictions. In this paper, we define predictive multiplicity as the ability of a prediction problem to admit competing models with confl…
Fairness has become a central issue for our research community as classification algorithms are adopted in societally critical domains such as recidivism prediction and loan approval. In this work, we consider the potential bias based on protected attributes (e.g., race and gender), and tackle this problem by learning …
Proposes a method to ensure low losses across all subpopulations in large datasets.
problem Standard practice of minimizing average loss fails to guarantee low losses across all subpopulations in heterogeneous datasets.
method Convex procedure that controls worst-case performance over all subpopulations of a given size with finite-sample convergence guarantees.
result Empirically, the worst-case procedure learns models that do well against unseen subpopulations.
New risk control method for non-monotonic losses in complex parameters.
problem Controlling risk for non-monotonic losses with multidimensional parameters.
method Stability-based guarantees for generic algorithms applied to non-monotonic losses.
result Guarantees depend on algorithm stability, with looser guarantees for unstable algorithms.
The growing capability and accessibility of machine learning has led to its application to many real-world domains and data about people. Despite the benefits algorithmic systems may bring, models can reflect, inject, or exacerbate implicit and explicit societal biases into their outputs, disadvantaging certain demogra…
Neural Additive Models combine neural nets with interpretable models for high stakes tasks.
problem Inability to understand how neural networks make decisions.
method Combines neural nets with generalized additive models to create Neural Additive Models (NAMs).
result NAMs are more accurate than intelligible models and as accurate as state-of-the-art generalized additive models.
In the context of machine learning, disparate impact refers to a form of systematic discrimination whereby the output distribution of a model depends on the value of a sensitive attribute (e.g., race or gender). In this paper, we propose an information-theoretic framework to analyze the disparate impact of a binary cla…
We consider settings in which the right notion of fairness is not captured by simple mathematical definitions (such as equality of error rates across groups), but might be more complex and nuanced and thus require elicitation from individual or collective stakeholders. We introduce a framework in which pairs of individ…
NeuRules learns interpretable rule lists from data without pre-discretization.
problem Interpretable rule lists for high-stakes decisions in machine learning.
method Neuro-symbolic continuous optimization with temperature annealing.
result NeuRules outperforms existing methods in learning interpretable rule lists.
Algorithmic risk assessments are increasingly used to help humans make decisions in high-stakes settings, such as medicine, criminal justice and education. In each of these cases, the purpose of the risk assessment tool is to inform actions, such as medical treatments or release conditions, often with the aim of reduci…
In this paper, we study the prediction of a real-valued target, such as a risk score or recidivism rate, while guaranteeing a quantitative notion of fairness with respect to a protected attribute such as gender or race. We call this class of problems \emph{fair regression}. We propose general schemes for fair regressio…
EL framework certifies and flags bias in ML models without distributional assumptions.
problem Systematic performance disparities across sensitive subpopulations in ML models.
method Empirical likelihood-based approach for non-parametric fairness auditing.
result EL framework outperforms bootstrap methods in certification and subpopulation discovery.
Fairness measures fail in predictive settings that intentionally shift outcomes.
problem Fairness measures fail in performative prediction settings.
method Formalized concept shift and counterfactual outcomes.
result Predictors that are fair during training become unfair during deployment.
Less Discriminatory Alternative and Interpretable XGBoost Framework for Binary Classificationstat.ML
LDA-XGB1 balances fairness and accuracy in lending models.
problem Fair lending practices and model interpretability in binary classification.
method Biobjective optimization using binning and information value, leveraging XGBoost.
result Achieves effective balance between accuracy, fairness, and interpretability.
Complex statistical machine learning models are increasingly being used or considered for use in high-stakes decision-making pipelines in domains such as financial services, health care, criminal justice and human services. These models are often investigated as possible improvements over more classical tools such as r…
Where machine-learned predictive risk scores inform high-stakes decisions, such as bail and sentencing in criminal justice, fairness has been a serious concern. Recent work has characterized the disparate impact that such risk scores can have when used for a binary classification task. This may not account, however, fo…
An algorithmic decision-maker incentivizes people to act in certain ways to receive better decisions. These incentives can dramatically influence subjects' behaviors and lives, and it is important that both decision-makers and decision-recipients have clarity on which actions are incentivized by the chosen model. While…
Machine Learning techniques have become pervasive across a range of different applications, and are now widely used in areas as disparate as recidivism prediction, consumer credit-risk analysis and insurance pricing. The prevalence of machine learning techniques has raised concerns about the potential for learned algor…
Humans are the final decision makers in critical tasks that involve ethical and legal concerns, ranging from recidivism prediction, to medical diagnosis, to fighting against fake news. Although machine learning models can sometimes achieve impressive performance in these tasks, these tasks are not amenable to full auto…