The COMPAS software uses an algorithm to assess potential recidivism risk. Northpointe created risk scales for general and violent recidivism, and for pretrial misconduct.

May 23, 2016 · The COMPAS system unevenly predicts recidivism between genders. According to Kaplan-Meier estimates, women rated high risk recidivated at a 47.5 percent rate during two years after they were...

Jan 17, 2018 · One widely used criminal risk assessment tool, Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS; Northpointe, which rebranded itself to “equivant” in January 2017), has been used to assess more than 1 million offenders since it …

Feb 9, 2024 · Using the ProPublica dataset, we demonstrate that COMPAS predictions favor jailing over release. COMPAS is biased against defendants. We show that this bias can largely be removed. Our proposed correction increases overall …

As the algorithm primarily concerns itself with risk of recidivism, it is primarily meant to be used in making decisions of pretrial release (bail) and parole. The model underlying COMPAS is closed-source and unknown to the public (including those who it affects).

When most defendants are booked in jail, they respond to a COMPAS questionnaire. Their answers are fed into the COMPAS software to generate several scores including predictions of “Risk of Recidivism” and “Risk of Violent Recidivism.”

The COMPAS algorithm outputs a profile of a criminal’s recidivism risk scores for categories of “Violence, Recidivism, Failure to Appear, [and] Community Non-compliance”.52

Across the nation, judges, probation and parole officers are increasingly using algorithms to assess a criminal defendant’s likelihood to re-offend. There are dozens of these risk assessment...

Jan 17, 2018 · Developed by a private company called Equivant (formerly Northpointe), COMPAS—or the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative …

Aug 17, 2018 · We set out to assess one of the commercial tools made by Northpointe, Inc. to discover the underlying accuracy of their recidivism algorithm and to test whether the algorithm was biased against certain groups.