As deceiving as the name may be, Simpson's Paradox isn't related to Homer Simpson in any way. In simplest terms, Simpson’s Paradox is when a set of data appears to be different depending on how the data is separated or presented.
Does a person’s race have any effect on their chances of being convicted and receiving the death penalty?
My analysis
By looking at the data at a glance, it looks like white convicts have higher percentages of receiving the death sentence (11.2% of white convicts receive the death sentence while 8.5% of black convicts received the death sentence). However, when the data is broken down based on the racial relationship between the suspects and victims, it seems to show that black suspects actually have higher percentages of being sentenced to death. In cases involving white victims, 19.3% of black suspects received the death penalty (as opposed to the 12.3% of white suspects), and in cases involving black victims, 1.3% of black suspects received the death penalty (as opposed to 0% of white suspects). More surprisingly, in cases involving a white suspect and a black victim, none of the white suspects received the death penalty.
This is interesting, because this paradox essentially proves that it’s own data doesn’t display itself completely accurately.
After researching Warren McClesky on Google, I was struck by the fact that, of the four people who were involved in (and therefore equally as responsible for) a fatal shooting, McClesky was the only one who was sentenced to death. So, the Simpson’s Paradox can give an idea of how data can be distorted. This proves that there are many flaws in our justice system- some of which can even be found through math!
I enjoyed learning about this topic, even though I found it very confusing at first. I felt like there are so many ways that I probably have been deceived in the past because I was never aware of what Simpson’s paradox was. In fact, the day after I learned about it, I decided not to trust a certain college debt statistic because I knew that I didn’t know exactly how the data broke down.
Does a person’s race have any effect on their chances of being convicted and receiving the death penalty?
My analysis
By looking at the data at a glance, it looks like white convicts have higher percentages of receiving the death sentence (11.2% of white convicts receive the death sentence while 8.5% of black convicts received the death sentence). However, when the data is broken down based on the racial relationship between the suspects and victims, it seems to show that black suspects actually have higher percentages of being sentenced to death. In cases involving white victims, 19.3% of black suspects received the death penalty (as opposed to the 12.3% of white suspects), and in cases involving black victims, 1.3% of black suspects received the death penalty (as opposed to 0% of white suspects). More surprisingly, in cases involving a white suspect and a black victim, none of the white suspects received the death penalty.
This is interesting, because this paradox essentially proves that it’s own data doesn’t display itself completely accurately.
After researching Warren McClesky on Google, I was struck by the fact that, of the four people who were involved in (and therefore equally as responsible for) a fatal shooting, McClesky was the only one who was sentenced to death. So, the Simpson’s Paradox can give an idea of how data can be distorted. This proves that there are many flaws in our justice system- some of which can even be found through math!
I enjoyed learning about this topic, even though I found it very confusing at first. I felt like there are so many ways that I probably have been deceived in the past because I was never aware of what Simpson’s paradox was. In fact, the day after I learned about it, I decided not to trust a certain college debt statistic because I knew that I didn’t know exactly how the data broke down.