Algorithmic risk assessments and the double-edged sword of youth.

At sentencing, youth can be considered both a mitigating circumstance because of its association with diminished culpability, and an aggravating circumstance because of its association with crime risk. In theory, judges and parole boards can recognize this double-edged sword phenomenon and balance the mitigating and aggravating effects of youth. But when sentencing authorities rely on algorithmic risk assessments, a practice that is becoming increasingly common, this balancing process may never take place.

Principles of risk assessment for researchers and practitioners.

Risk assessment instruments (RAIs) are generally thought to be more accurate and less susceptible to bias than the type of seat-of-the-pants risk assessment in which judges and parole boards have traditionally engaged. But RAIs bring with them their own set of controversies. This article will discuss three principles - the fit principle, the validity principle, and the fairness principle - that might govern use of RAIs.

Preventive justice: A paradigm in need of testing.

This article is a revision of an address made at the 2016 annual conference of the American Psychology-Law Society, in honor of receiving that organization's Distinguished Contribution Award. It sets forth a vision of the criminal justice system, and in particular the sentencing process, that is oriented toward preventive, rather than retributive, justice. After explaining preventive justice - a concept that in one form or another has been discussed for decades - and why it is worth revisiting at this time, the article proposes a number of hypotheses about the assumptions underlying preventive and retributive justice regimes.

The net effects of medical malpractice tort reform on health insurance losses: the Texas experience.

In this paper, we examine the influence of medical malpractice tort reform on the level of private health insurance company losses incurred. We employ a natural experiment framework centered on a series of tort reform measures enacted in Texas in 2003 that drastically altered the medical malpractice environment in the state. The results of a difference-in-differences analysis using a variety of comparison states, as well as a difference-in-difference-in-differences analysis, indicate that ameliorating medical malpractice risk has little effect on health insurance losses incurred by private health insurers.

Legal and institutional foundations of adaptive environmental governance.

Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience.

The role of law in adaptive governance.

The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governmental action beyond that currently found in the heavily administrative governments of many democracies.

Adaptive management of ecosystem services across different land use regimes.

Using adaptive management to manage desired flows of ecosystem services may seem on the surface to be a good fit, but many social, economic, environmental, legal, and political factors influence how good a fit. One strongly influential factor is the land use regime within which the profile of ecosystem services is being managed. Shaped largely by legal mandates, market forces, and social and cultural practices, different land use regimes present different opportunities for and constraints on goals for ecosystem services and pose different decision making environments.

Judging adaptive management practices of U.S. agencies.

All U.S. federal agencies administering environmental laws purport to practice adaptive management (AM), but little is known about how they actually implement this conservation tool.

Eliminating mental disability as a legal criterion in deprivation of liberty cases: The impact of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities on the insanity defense, civil commitment, and competency law.

A number of laws that are associated with deprivations of liberty, including the insanity defense, civil commitment, guardianship of the person and numerous competency doctrines in the criminal context, require proof of mental disability as a predicate. The Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities commands signatory states to eliminate that predicate. Summarizing principles set out in my book Minding Justice: Laws That Deprive People With Mental Disability of Life and Liberty, I explain how this seemingly radical stance can be implemented.

Publication selection and the income elasticity of the value of a statistical life.

Estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL) establish the price government agencies use to value fatality risks. Transferring these valuations to other populations often utilizes the income elasticity of the VSL, which typically draw on estimates from meta-analyses. Using a data set consisting of 101 estimates of the income elasticity of VSL from 14 previously reported meta-analyses, we find that after accounting for potential publication bias the income elasticity of value of a statistical life is clearly and robustly inelastic, with a value of approximately 0.

Prevention of sexual violence by those who have been sexually violent.

This article argues that indeterminate sentencing is the optimal means of preventing recidivism among sex offenders, both as an instrumental matter and jurisprudentially. Once a person is convicted of an offense, the duration and nature of sentence should be based on a back-end decision made by experts in recidivism reduction, within broad ranges set by the legislature. This position is defended against a number of objections, including claims that such a system relies on flawed risk assessments, ignores societal views of justice, denigrates offenders and victims, undermines deterrence and norm enforcement, depends too heavily on costly, uneven and demoralizing risk management schemes, and, as a result of one or more of these objections, is unconstitutional.

How neuroscience might advance the law.

This essay discusses the strengths and limitations of the new, growing field of law and biology and suggests that advancements in neuroscience can help to bolster that field. It also briefly discusses some ways that neuroscience can help to improve the workings of law more generally.