Do Risk Assessments Play a Role in the Enduring ‘Color Line’?

Abstract

This paper presents some of the arguments that have been put forward to suggest that current risk assessments are inherently biased and disproportionally disadvantage people of color in Western correctional systems. We suggest that this is a key area of concern for all correctional professionals and that new methods of risk assessment and approaches to training are needed. In our view, without this people of color will continue to be misclassified, over-assessed, placed in the wrong rehabilitation pathways, imprisoned and/or supervised longer than needed, and consequently remaining overrepresented in the correctional system.