Hacker News Reader

Do you really think that the authors missed such a completely obvious flaw, something so simple that a random internet commenter could use it to invalidate the entire work in one sentence? It's hard to take this type of criticism seriously without any specific references to their methodology.

View on HN

I think researchers do ignore obvious flaws, but I don't think it happened here. It's easiest to ignore obvious flaws when you are testing something that almost no one would challenge, like "eating vegetables is good for you."

I read the article, and yes, their conclusions point to the fact that they did indeed miss such a completely obvious flaw. This sentence, their conclusion, was in bold:

The disparity in sentencing between whites and blacks emerged as the single factor making the disease of incarceration a true epidemic among blacks. Not the socioeconomic disparity, mind you, but the actual sentences. This conclusion is so obviously wrong it's absurd on its face.

Black people with similar economic backgrounds get longer sentences. The longer your in prison the more likely you are to go back AND the more likely close relatives will end up in prison.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com