The ProPublica you cite as example for bias in criminal justice is plainly wrong. A follow up study found the the system they examined was not biased at all.
Reference: Flores, Bechtel, Lowencamp; "False Positives, False Negatives, and False Analyses: A Rejoinder to “Machine Bias: There’s Software Used Across the Country to Predict Future Criminals. And it’s Biased Against Blacks.”", Federal Probation Journal, September 2016, You can find the article here: http://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/publications/fede...
In fact the ProPublica analysis (written by journalists,not scientists) was so wrong that the authors of the study wrote:
"It is noteworthy that the ProPublica code of ethics advises investigative journalists that "when in doubt, ask" numerous times. We feel that Larson et al.'s (2016) omissions and mistakes could have been avoided had they just asked. Perhaps they might have even asked...a criminologist? We certainly respect the mission of ProPublica, which is to "practice and promote investigative journalism in the public interest." However, we also feel that the journalists at ProPublica strayed from their own code of ethics in that they did not present the facts accurately, their presentation of the existing literature was incomplete, and they failed to "ask." While we aren’t inferring that they had an agenda in writing their story, we believe that they are better equipped to report the research news, rather than attempt to make the research news."
Reference: Flores, Bechtel, Lowencamp; "False Positives, False Negatives, and False Analyses: A Rejoinder to “Machine Bias: There’s Software Used Across the Country to Predict Future Criminals. And it’s Biased Against Blacks.”", Federal Probation Journal, September 2016, You can find the article here: http://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/publications/fede...
In fact the ProPublica analysis (written by journalists,not scientists) was so wrong that the authors of the study wrote:
"It is noteworthy that the ProPublica code of ethics advises investigative journalists that "when in doubt, ask" numerous times. We feel that Larson et al.'s (2016) omissions and mistakes could have been avoided had they just asked. Perhaps they might have even asked...a criminologist? We certainly respect the mission of ProPublica, which is to "practice and promote investigative journalism in the public interest." However, we also feel that the journalists at ProPublica strayed from their own code of ethics in that they did not present the facts accurately, their presentation of the existing literature was incomplete, and they failed to "ask." While we aren’t inferring that they had an agenda in writing their story, we believe that they are better equipped to report the research news, rather than attempt to make the research news."
Ouch...