Using statistics to fight crime
“I want to ‘Money Ball’ criminal justice” – Anne Milgram
Fascinating video from TED.
“When she became the attorney general of New Jersey in 2007, Anne Milgram quickly discovered a few startling facts: not only did her team not really know who they were putting in jail, but they had no way of understanding if their decisions were actually making the public safer. And so began her ongoing, inspirational quest to bring data analytics and statistical analysis to the US criminal justice system.
Anne Milgram is committed to using data and analytics to fight crime.”
Rachel Cunliffe is the co-director of CensusAtSchool and currently consults for the Department of Statistics. Her interests include statistical literacy, social media and blogging. See all posts by Rachel Cunliffe »
Agree it’s a fascinating talk but count me sceptical. There is a lot of data and good statistical analysis in this area that is already struggling to be adopted. An area that has the “lie, damned lies and statistics” thrown at it as a proportion of the general public has a *very* strong prior that punishment of crims is the answer, and preferably punishment a long way away from where they live.
One thing I tell young statisticians is good statistical analyses will not by default be used to make decisions.
11 years ago