{"title":"The Insufficiency of Statistics for Detecting Racial Discrimination by Police","authors":"Naftali Weinberger","doi":"10.1017/psa.2023.134","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Benchmark tests are employed when testing for racial discrimination by police. Neil and Winship (2019) emphasize that such tests are threatened by Simpson’s paradox, but avoid analyzing the paradox causally. They consequently cannot elucidate the link between statistical quantities and discrimination hypotheses. Simpson’s paradox reveals that the statistics given by benchmark tests are not invariant to conditioning on additional variables. On this basis, I argue that benchmark statistics should not by themselves be taken to provide any evidence regarding discrimination, absent additional assumptions. Causal models can represent these assumptions.","PeriodicalId":54620,"journal":{"name":"Philosophy of Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Philosophy of Science","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.134","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Benchmark tests are employed when testing for racial discrimination by police. Neil and Winship (2019) emphasize that such tests are threatened by Simpson’s paradox, but avoid analyzing the paradox causally. They consequently cannot elucidate the link between statistical quantities and discrimination hypotheses. Simpson’s paradox reveals that the statistics given by benchmark tests are not invariant to conditioning on additional variables. On this basis, I argue that benchmark statistics should not by themselves be taken to provide any evidence regarding discrimination, absent additional assumptions. Causal models can represent these assumptions.
摘要在对警察种族歧视进行检测时，采用基准测试。Neil and Winship(2019)强调这些测试受到辛普森悖论的威胁，但避免对悖论进行因果分析。因此，它们不能阐明统计量和歧视假设之间的联系。辛普森悖论揭示了基准测试给出的统计数据对于附加变量的条件不是不变的。在此基础上，我认为，如果没有额外的假设，基准统计数据本身不应被视为提供有关歧视的任何证据。因果模型可以表示这些假设。
期刊介绍：
Since its inception in 1934, Philosophy of Science, along with its sponsoring society, the Philosophy of Science Association, has been dedicated to the furthering of studies and free discussion from diverse standpoints in the philosophy of science. The journal contains essays, discussion articles, and book reviews.
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