Fair Profiling

There are several strategies available to police “stopping” suspects. Most efficient is to stop only members of the group with the highest a priori probability of guilt; least efficient is indiscriminate stopping. An efficient option that satisfies one criterion for fairness is a strategy that matches stop probability to risk probability. But a strategy that chooses stop probabilities so that the absolute number of innocents stopped is equal for all groups is close to maximally efficient and seems fair by almost any criterion.

Duke Scholars

Author John E. R. Staddon Psychology & Neuroscience