Constitutional Brawl Looms Over How Risk Assessment Tools Account for Gender
Researchers say that scoring men and women differently is essential to account for risk assessment tools' inherent gender bias. But it's an open question whether these adjustments are violating state or constitutional law.
July 20, 2020 at 10:00 AM
5 minute read
While there's been a lot of focus on how risk assessment tools treat different racial demographics, little attention has been paid to another issue that may be just as problematic: how gender factors into risk scores. Researchers say accounting for the differences in gender ensures that risk assessments are more accurate, but exactly how they do so may run into constitutional challenges.
Legaltech News found one gender-specific risk assessment tool currently implemented in at least two states: the Women's Risk and Needs Assessment (WRNA), which like the the Ohio Risk Assessment System (ORAS), was created by the University of Cincinnati. Kansas uses the WRNA to assess parolees' risk in a women's prison in Topeka, while Montana deploys it for women on probation or parole throughout its Department of Corrections.
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