Predicting US Public Opinion on Punitiveness in the Criminal Courts System: A Machine Learning Approach

• In Event: Punitiveness, Race, Police Reform

Brief Overview

Analyzing sixteen attitudinal and demographic GSS variables with Random Forest modeling, we find that an individual’s opinion regarding drug policy is consistently the most influential predictor of punitive attitudes toward the US court system.

Authors

• Scott M. Mourtgos, University of Utah

• Ian T. Adams, University of Utah

• Samuel Baty, University of Utah