ABSTRACT

This chapter describes algorithms and Big Data, and explores two concepts through a social science lens and how they can be applied to issues within the criminal justice system. An algorithm is a sequence of instructions used to solve a problem. The algorithm takes input in the form of data, performs a set of instructions, and produces an output. The selection-sort algorithm is an example of prioritization, as it orders a list of numbers regarding their absolute numerical value. Software applications that aggregate content for users, such as Facebook or Twitter, use algorithms that filter out unimportant news stories, tweets, and posts. For social scientists, algorithms are often experienced as formulas that take socially relevant data and produce outputs to be interpreted. In the simplest sense, Big Data refers to the presence of large quantities of information produced by and stored on computers.