How much of a statistical correlation would you require? Anything over 50%? 90%? 99%? I’d still have a problem with this. “It is better [one hundred] guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer.”—Ben Franklin
Sorry, not arguing from authority, the quote is a declaration of my values (or maybe just a heuristic :-), I just wanted to attribute it accurately.
My problem may just be lack of imagination. How could this work in reality? If we are talking about groups that are statistically more likely to commit crimes, we already have those. How is what is proposed above different from imprisoning these groups? Is it just a matter of doing a cost-benefit analysis?
How much of a statistical correlation would you require? Anything over 50%? 90%? 99%? I’d still have a problem with this. “It is better [one hundred] guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer.”—Ben Franklin
An article by SteveLandsburg on a similar quote.
And a historical overview of related quotes.
Enough to justify imprisoning everyone. It depends on how long they’d stay in jail, the magnitude of the crime, etc.
I really don’t care what Ben Franklin thinks.
Sorry, not arguing from authority, the quote is a declaration of my values (or maybe just a heuristic :-), I just wanted to attribute it accurately.
My problem may just be lack of imagination. How could this work in reality? If we are talking about groups that are statistically more likely to commit crimes, we already have those. How is what is proposed above different from imprisoning these groups? Is it just a matter of doing a cost-benefit analysis?
It’s not different. Vladmir is arguing that if you agree with the article, you should also support preemptive imprisonment.