user2016

In order to allocate resources more effectively with the goal of providing safer communities, R's randomForest algorithm was used to identify candidates who may commit or attempt murder. And while crime data within the general population may be highly imbalanced, one may expect the rate of murderers within a high-risk probationer population to be much less imbalanced. However, the County of Los Angeles had nearly 130 probationers commit or attempt murder out of nearly 17,000, a ratio close to 1:130). Classic methods were used to overcome class imbalance, including under/over stratified sampling and variable sampling per tree. The results were encouraging. Model validation tests demonstrate an 87% overall accuracy rate at relatively low costs. The agency currently uses a risk assessment tool that was outperformed by randomForest up to 52% (both in overall accuracy and a reduction in false positives). This work is based on research conducted by Berk, R. et al. (2009) originally published by Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.