Our ability to predict who will be the dangerous recidivist is so inexact that it would be necessary to imprison many other offenders who share similar characteristics with the real predators but would not actually become involved in serious crimes in the future. This would be called a ___________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A false positive refers to a situation where a test result indicates the presence of a condition or trait (in this case, predicting someone as a dangerous recidivist) when in fact it is not present. In this scenario, many offenders who share similar characteristics with the real predators may be incorrectly identified as dangerous recidivists and imprisoned, even though they are not actually at risk of committing serious crimes in the future.

Our Ability to Predict Who Will Be the Dangerous Recidivist