Comment by halostatue

In practice, investigations tend to find the results for which the investigation was started. At the beginning of the article, it was also suggested that such investigations in Amsterdam found no higher rate of actual fraud amongst the groups which were targeted more frequently via implicit bias by human reviewers.

In North America, we know that white people use hard drugs at a slightly higher rate than non-whites. However, the arrest and conviction rate of hard drug users is multiples higher for non-white people than whites. (I mention North America because similar data exist for both Canada and the USA, but the exact ratios and which groups are negatively impacted differ.)

Similarly, when it comes to accusations of welfare fraud, there is substantial bias in the investigations of non-whites and there are deep-seated racist stereotypes (thanks for that, Reagan) that don't hold up to scrutiny especially when the proportion of welfare recipients is slightly higher amongst whites than amongst non-whites[1].

So…saying that the goal is to avoid penalizing people for [innate characteristics] is more correct and a better use of time. The city of Amsterdam already knew that its fraud investigations were flawed.

[1] In the US based on 2022 data, https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/05/who-is-receiv... shows that excluding Medicaid/CHIP, the rate of welfare is higher for whites.