Calculating race : racial discrimination in risk assessment / Benjamin Wiggins.

9780197504031 (electronic book)

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020.

English

1 online resource (144 pages) : illustrations.

E185.86 .W43855 2020

305.896073

'Calculating Race' presents the historical relationship between statistical risk assessment and race in the United States. It illustrates how, through a reliance on the variable of race, actuarial science transformed the nature of racism and, in turn, helped usher racial disparities in wealth, incarceration, and housing from the 19th century into the 20th. The monograph begins by investigating the development of statistical risk assessment explicitly based on race in the late-19th-century life insurance industry. It then traces how such risk assessment migrated from industry to government, becoming a guiding force in parole decisions and in federal housing policy. Finally, it concludes with an analysis of 'proxies' for race-statistical variables that correlate significantly with race.

'Calculating Race' presents the historical relationship between statistical risk assessment and race in the United States. It illustrates how, through a reliance on the variable of race, actuarial science transformed the nature of racism and, in turn, helped usher racial disparities in wealth, incarceration, and housing from the 19th century into the 20th. The monograph begins by investigating the development of statistical risk assessment explicitly based on race in the late-19th-century life insurance industry. It then traces how such risk assessment migrated from industry to government, becoming a guiding force in parole decisions and in federal housing policy. Finally, it concludes with an analysis of 'proxies' for race-statistical variables that correlate significantly with race.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access limited to authorized users.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on October 15, 2020).

Oxford scholarship online.

Print version: 9780197504000

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