Threat to society definition
Threat to society is quantified through a numerical risk score outputted based on question responses and personal data about the defendant. The range of risk scores - low, medium, and high - guides the judge’s ultimate decision, and this score can further influence prison housing and services for the defendant. The algorithms used for pretrial risk assessments are proprietary and not subject to state or federal laws, meaning they can remain undisclosed and lack the transparency many desire in order to fully understand the information being considered in a criminal case. Upon analysis of the intricacies and uses of a leading risk assessment process, the constitutionality of these types of softwares will be examined. Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) is a widespread risk assessment algorithm created by for-profit Equivant (previously Northpointe). Initially developed in 1988, COMPAS is used across agencies nationwide today, being consistently revised to remain up-to-date with the growing criminological knowledge and changing correctional practices.68 The primary risk assessment models developed by COMPAS measure the likeliness of the defendant to recommit a crime, one model looking at general recidivism and the other considering violent recidivism. The assessment aims to not only provide a score, but to also help practitioners devise and implement a support strategy based on the unique results of the individual. With overcrowded prisons already an issue, the brevity and efficiency that comes from COMPAS in determining urgency, risk, and need for pretrial prison placement can serve as a critical “triage” step in the criminal justice system. The raw scale scores are calculated from the 137-question risk assessment and then converted into decile scores, which can only be interpreted relatively and in relation to the norm group.69 Generally, across all of COMPAS’s scales and specifically for the two primary risk models at focus, the decile ranking is as follows: