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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:59 pm
Time: 9:59 pm
Results for court appearance
2 results foundAuthor: Cooke, Brice Title: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Criminal Justice Outcomes: Preventing Failures to Appear in Court Summary: Executive Summary In 2014, nearly 41% of the approximately 320,000 cases from tickets issued to people for low-level offenses in New York City (NYC) had recipients who did not appear in court or resolve their summons by mail. This represents approximately 130,000 missed court dates for these offenses. Regardless of the offense severity (summonses are issued for offenses ranging from things like littering on the street or sidewalk to drinking in public), failure to appear in court automatically results in the issuance of an arrest warrant. Because warrants are costly and burdensome for both the criminal justice system and recipients, the NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice - in partnership with the New York City Police Department and New York State Unified Court System Office of Court Administration - asked ideas42 and the University of Chicago Crime Lab to design and implement inexpensive, scalable solutions to reduce the failure to appear (FTA) rate. We tackled this problem using a two-sided approach. First, we redesigned the NYC summons form to make the most relevant information stand out, making it easier for people to respond appropriately. In the new form, important information about one's court date and location is moved to the top, the negative consequence of failing to act is boldly displayed, and clear language encourages recipients to show up to court or plead by mail. Second, we created text message reminders. We identified behavioral barriers leading many to miss their court dates: people forget, they have mistaken beliefs about how often other people skip court, they see a mismatch between minor offenses and the obligation to appear in court, and they overweigh the immediate hassles of attending court and ignore the downstream consequences. We then designed different reminders targeted at helping recipients overcome these barriers. From March 2016 to September 2017 we implemented and evaluated our interventions, and showed that both have significant and positive effects on appearance rates. We found that behavioral redesign of the form reduced FTA by 13%. This form has already been scaled system-wide to all criminal court summonses, and, based on 2014 figures, translates to preventing roughly 17,000 arrest warrants per year. Using a randomized controlled trial, we found that the most effective reminder messaging reduced FTA by 26% relative to receiving no messages. Looking 30 days after the court date, the most effective messaging reduced open warrants by 32% relative to receiving no messages. This stems from both reducing FTA on the scheduled court date as well as court appearances after the FTA to clear the resulting warrant. These results are in addition to the gains already realized from the summons form redesign. The most effective messaging combined information on the consequences of not showing up to court, what to expect at court, and plan-making elements. Details: New York, NY: ideas42, 2018. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 16, 2019 at: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/crim-just-report.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/projects/using-behavioral-science-to-improve-criminal-justice-outcomes Shelf Number: 154229 Keywords: Behavioral BarriersCourt AppearanceCourt DatesFailure to Appear (FTA)LitteringLow-Level Offenses |
Author: Garrett, Brandon L. Title: Driver's License Suspension in North Carolina Summary: In this Article, we analyze data concerning driver's license suspension for traffic offenses. The interest of a person in a driver's license is "substantial," and the suspension of a license by the state can result in "inconvenience and economic hardship suffered," as the U.S. Supreme Court has observed, including because a license may "essential in the pursuit of a livelihood." However, in this analysis of North Carolina data, we found that there are 1,225,000 active driver's licenses suspensions in North Carolina for non-driving related reasons, relating to failure to pay traffic fines and court courts, and failure to appear in court for traffic offenses. These suspensions constitute about 15% of all adult drivers in the state. Of those, 827,000 are for failure to appear in court, 263,000 for failure to comply with orders to pay traffic costs, fines, and fees, and 135,000 for both. These suspensions are disproportionately imposed on minority residents. Of those with driver's license suspensions, 33% of those with failure to appear suspensions are black and 24% Latinx, while 35% were white. The demographics for all North Carolina residents who are of driving age include: 65% white, 21% black, and 8% Latinx. Still more severe consequences, DWLR charges, also disproportionately fall on minority residents. We also conducted a series of mixed-model linear regressions on North Carolina driver's license suspensions from 2010-2017, analyzing the effects of race, poverty, population size, traffic court cases and traffic stops on suspensions per county. Overall, population accounts for most of the variation in suspensions: the more people in the county, the more people have suspended licenses. When we control for population, we see little evidence that traffic stops or traffic cases are driving suspensions. We find that the relationship between the number of people in poverty and the number of suspensions in a county is dependent on race. Put another way, increasing a county's population by one white individual below poverty increases the number of suspensions by a greater amount than increasing the county's population by one white above poverty. However, increasing the population by one black individual below poverty increases the number of suspensions by less than increasing the county population by one black individual above poverty. This suggests that poverty functions differently for whites than it does for blacks. We conclude by setting out questions for future research, and describing both law and policy responses to driver's license suspensions in other jurisdictions, including: constitutional challenges, restoration efforts, dismissals of charges, and legislative efforts to restore licenses and end the suspension of driver's licenses for non-driving related traffic offenses. Details: Durham, NC: Duke University School of Law, 2019. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 18, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3355599 Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3355599 Shelf Number: 155459 Keywords: Court AppearanceDrivers License SuspensionsFines and FeesPovertyRacial DisparitiesTraffic OffensesTraffic Violations |