@article{166420,
      recid = {166420},
      author = {Harcourt, Bernard E.,},
      title = {Against prediction : profiling, policing, and punishing in  an actuarial age /},
      pages = {viii, 336 pages :},
      abstract = {From routine security checks at airports to the use of  risk assessment in sentencing, actuarial methods are being  used more than ever to determine whom law enforcement  officials target and punish. And with the exception of  racial profiling on our highways and streets, most people  favor these methods because they believe theyre a more  cost-effective way to fight crime. InAgainst Prediction,  Bernard E. Harcourt challenges this growing reliance on  actuarial methods. These prediction tools, he demonstrates,  may in factincreasethe overall amount of crime in society,  depending on the relative responsiveness of the profiled  populations to heightened security. They may also aggravate  the difficulties that minorities already have obtaining  work, education, and a better quality of lifethus  perpetuating the pattern of criminal behavior. Ultimately,  Harcourt shows how the perceived success of actuarial  methods has begun to distort our very conception of just  punishment and to obscure alternate visions of social  order. In place of the actuarial, he proposes instead a  turn to randomization in punishment and policing. The  presumption, Harcourt concludes, should beagainst  prediction.},
      url = {http://pegasus.law.columbia.edu/record/166420},
}