Introduction

We can begin the search for a system of managing errors in criminal justice by considering systems of error management in other domains. Several domains provide tools that have potential value as components of a system for managing justice errors. We focus here on two, with no presumption to have exhausted the relevant prospects. First is the domain of statistical inference, in which a logic and set of tools derived from that logic have been developed to test research hypotheses and estimate parameters of interest in such a way that is mindful of both random and systematic errors of inference. Second is that of quality control analysis, in which frameworks such as simulation modeling have been developed to manage errors in the production of goods and delivery of services. In Chapter 5, we will focus on a third, that of welfare economics and its concept of social costs, aimed at finding public policies and programs that minimize the sum of the cost of social harms and the cost of interventions designed to counter those harms.