There has been a long-standing trend in American culture of an unfortunate racial bias in social and legal proceedings. As generations of people, both communities and individuals have woken up and spoken out, culture has changed. There have been some monumental victories over the years, and there are many things to celebrate about the progress that has been made and is now on demonstration throughout many different areas and industries.
Despite the momentum of these cultural cries, there is still plenty of equality, disparity, and injustice between racial demographics. Sadly, and ironically, one of those most important systems of modern society, the legal system, is also perhaps one of the most broken, and in recent years more and more documentation of racial injustices has revived a social justice movement in these categories. Even with the support from many organizations, public, private, and federal, there is still plenty of consistently occurring racial bias in the legal systems, definitely pointing to a disproportionate effect on people of color who find themselves in the criminal justice system.
Despite public outcry, publicity, policy, and efforts, the remnants of a flawed system have yet to be fully eradicated. The good news is that advancements in technology have brought a fresh wind of hope with new solutions that can help to mitigate and counteract racial bias in legal procedures.
Disproportionate Impact on Minority Communities
Despite centuries of notable efforts to create and establish a justice system and rule by which a civilized society might best regulate itself and its citizens, there still remain far too many examples of a deeply entrenched issue of racial bias in legal proceedings. This is displayed far too often in the news today, but even with research presenting evidence as support, personal accounts, and sound journalism verifying the inequalities, the problem persists.
Racial disparities in sentencing and criminal justice can manifest in various ways, such as discriminatory policing practices, biased sentencing decisions, and unequal access to justice. These biases not only undermine the integrity of the legal system but also perpetuate systemic inequalities that harm minority communities.
Studies have shown that individuals from minority backgrounds are more likely to be arrested, charged, and convicted compared to their white counterparts, highlighting the urgent need for intervention.
Challenges Faced by Legal System
The legal system is one of many complicated, nuanced, interlacing ideas, policies, moral values, and progressive idealism that is constantly ebbing and flowing with the values and demands of a society and its various generational ideals. The complexity of this system, however, safeguarded by strict systems of education and certification that see only truly qualified professionals might operate in its bounds does little to counteract the insidious nature of humanity.
Corruption, greed, lies, and the like all undermine the wheels of justice that, though they could turn with ease, are often easily slowed by the sly and bureaucratic procedures that a meant to enable and protect “justice for all”. Part of this problem has to do with the fact that legal justice is not unaffected by other social systems, so while a court, its judge and its justices are fair and honorable people, the jury may be harboring their own biases. Because the justice system is dependent on people at all levels and walks of life, there are countless variables that are constantly at play across communities and industries.
Nothing will ever be perfect, but the efforts of those past, present, and being prepared for the future may continue to erode the systemic biases that have burrowed into the multi-layers of modern societies.
While there is and will be a demand for efforts on many fronts— social work, educational systems, federal policy, and public services to name a few— technology, in its broad reaching potential and regular innovation, is bolstering the battle for equality in legal proceedings.
How Technology Can Help Address Racial Bias
Data Analysis for Identifying Biases
Data analysis has proven itself a powerful tool since its inception, and one that has been utilized in many industries and one that is now being used to uncover patterns of racial bias in legal procedures. Though the technology is complex, the principles are quite simple: using computers that examine large datasets from a collection of criminal justice outcomes, researchers can sort through and identify trends that manifest as disparities in how different racial groups are treated.
The intense and regular analysis can, and has, revealed alarming trends. Higher arrest rates for people of color, longer sentences for minorities, and disparities in parole decisions are just a few of the more consistent symptoms of an unbalanced system.
By delving into the data, researchers can often identify specific areas within the criminal justice system where racial biases are most prevalent, where they have been more prominent in the past, and what might be contributing to the continuance.
This information gathered can be used and presented in public and private forums to encourage policymakers in implementing interventions to address these biases effectively, gradually diminishing the occurrence of these injustices.
AI And It’s Uses in Predictive Policing
The concept of predictive policing is a technological means that uses a data-driven approach enabled by algorithms and machine learning to aid in forecasting of potential criminal activity. It should be noted that the concept of predictive policing has come with much criticism due to concerns regarding public privacy, various civil liberties, (among other issues) but when implemented correctly, has demonstrated potential to reduce bias in policing practices.
Through the analysis of historical crime data, AI software uses algorithms which can potentially identify patterns and trends within the collective field of criminology to help law enforcement agencies in decision making like the allocation of resources and personnel to combat crime most effectively.
In order to see that this technology is used fairly and effectively, however, challenging rather than perpetuating racial bias, great care must be made to train and monitor AI systems all rounded out with regular auditing. If done correctly, a huge leap might be made on the path to ending racial bias in criminal justice.
About the Author
Ryan Ayers is a researcher and consultant within multiple industries including information technology, blockchain and business development. Always up for a challenge, Ayers enjoys working with startups as well as Fortune 500 companies. When not at work, Ayers loves reading science fiction novels and watching the LA Clippers.
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