Can AI Improve the Justice System?
The system for granting asylum in the U.S. has long been a political point of contention. Democrats and Republicans debate how liberal or restrictive its rules should be, but evidence suggests that the fate of some asylum seekers may be less influenced by the rules than by something far more arbitrary: the judge they’re assigned.
A 2007 study titled “Refugee Roulette” found that one judge granted asylum to only 5 percent of Colombian applicants, whereas another—working in the same building and applying the same rules—granted it to 88 percent.
Asylum is by no means the only part of our, 50 judges were given an identical set of facts about a hypothetical heroin dealer. Their proposed sentences ranged anywhere from one to 10 years. The problem persists today. A of more recent studies suggests that some judges show greater leniency toward defendants of their own race, whereas others are systematically harsher on such defendants.
