Below are two letters similar to others I have posted here lately regarding the mistaken belief that reducing adverse outcomes, including things like arrests, will tend to reduce relative differences in experiencing them and the proportions disadvantaged groups make up of persons experiencing them.
Item 1 is a March 12, 2015 letter to the City of Madison, Wisconsin that is similar to one to the City of Boulder, Colorado I posted here last week. Page 4 discusses a recent article in a University of Wisconsin paper reporting that general reductions in arrests in Madison between 2005 and 2014 were accompanied by an increase in the proportion African Americans made up of persons arrested.
Item 2 is a March 16, 2016 letter to the Council of Economic Advisers that, like letters sent last year to the American Statistical Association [3] and the Data Scientist of the Office of Science and Technology Policy [4] urges recipients, among other things, to explain to the federal government that reducing the frequency of an outcome tends to increase, not decrease, relative differences in experiencing the outcome and the proportion more susceptible groups make up of persons experiencing the outcome.
- http://jpscanlan.com/images/Letter_to_City_of_Madison,_Wisconsin_Mar._12,_2016_.pdf
- http://jpscanlan.com/images/Letter_to_Council_of_Economic_Advisers_Mar._16,_2016_.pdf
- http://jpscanlan.com/images/Letter_to_American_Statistical_Association_Oct._8,_2015_.pdf
- http://jpscanlan.com/images/Letter_to_DJ_Patil,_Chief_Data_Scientist_Sept._8,_2015_.pdf
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James Scanlan
James P. Scanlan Attorney At Law
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