Design for Justice: Improving crime policy with behavioural science

Justice systems treat missing a court date seriously: it can trigger an automatic arrest warrant, even for misdemeanours. Surprisingly often, defendants still fail to appear.

So why don’t they show?

Given the stakes, simple communication failure can seem unlikely. Working with the City of New York and ideas42, though, Prof. Aurélie Ouss helped test whether just redesigning notices and adding SMS reminders might improve things.

After their large-scale experiment cut missed court dates by up to 21%, the city made permanent changes. And since 2016, this has meant dismissal of charges against over 20,000 people — who’d otherwise have been stuck living under an open warrant.

Prof. Ouss’s timely research also speaks to broader challenges in designing a more humane justice system, from racial inequities to public beliefs about punishment. So for TAD's first event of 2021, come hear directly from this U Penn criminologist about her fascinating work!

** NB: We'll be sending attendees a video link closer to the date. **