Angèle Christin has a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University and the EHESS (Paris). She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and affiliated faculty in the Sociology Department and Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Stanford University.

She is interested in how algorithms and analytics transform professional values, expertise, and work practices. Currently, she studies the construction, institutionalization, and reception of predictive algorithms in the US criminal justice system.

In today’s episode we talk to Angèle about her work on technology and criminal justice in the US and France. We cover the definitions and purpose of risk assessment algorithms as well as how prosecutors and judges use them in their daily work. We talk about fairness and agency in sentencing, the COMPAS case, and the origins of the anxiety and moral panic around the use of AI algorithms.

Lastly we cover questions relating to the governance of risk assessment tools as well as the type of conversation needed between the academic field and the criminal justice sector when it comes to technology.

Mentioned in podcast:

• Machine bias (ProPublica article on the COMPAS recidivism algorithm system)
• Politics of Algorithms, Stanford class
• Algorithms in Practice (Angèle Christin)
• The Mistrials of Algorithmic Sentencing (Angèle Christin)
• Big Data Surveillance: The Case of Policing (Sarah Brayne)

Angèle’s work:
Emergency Hearings: An Inquiry on Judiciary Practice, La Découverte, 2008
Contemporary Sociology in the United States, with E. Ollion, La Découverte, 2012

Social media or other links:

http://www.angelechristin.com

https://twitter.com/AngeleChristin