Reducing Failure to Appear in Court

Last registered on June 25, 2018

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Reducing Failure to Appear in Court

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0003098

Initial registration date

June 25, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

June 25, 2018, 2:59 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

West

Primary Investigator

Name

Helen Ho

Affiliation

Harvard University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Natalia Emanuel

PI Affiliation

Harvard University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2018-03-13

End date

2021-04-12

Keywords

Crime, Violence, & Conflict

Additional Keywords

behavioral economics

JEL code(s)

K4, K14

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Failure to appear for court dates for low-level offenses remains high, which results in legal consequences for defendants and costs for the criminal justice system. This randomized controlled trial evaluates the effects of several interventions to increase successful court date resolutions: postcard reminders, SMS reminders, and SMS reminders with an invitation to ask court staff questions. Reminders will include useful details such as case number and court location, as well as additional information about the court system, its rules, and amenities. The study sample includes all individuals in the Traffic Courts, Misdemeanor Courts or Municipal Violations Courts who had not already resolved their ticket two weeks ahead of their court date. The proposed analysis will evaluate the interventions and explore the groups for whom it was differentially helpful. In addition, the study design will allow us to understand whether human help in navigating the court system is helpful above and beyond the low-cost informational interventions.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Emanuel, Natalia and Helen Ho. 2018. "Reducing Failure to Appear in Court." AEA RCT Registry. June 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3098-1.0

Former Citation

Emanuel, Natalia and Helen Ho. 2018. "Reducing Failure to Appear in Court." AEA RCT Registry. June 25. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3098/history/31180

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Treated individuals receive reminders of their court date.

In the basic SMS reminder treatments, individuals receive texts with information about their court date and accomodations. In the SMS+ treatment, defendants are also invited to text their questions or accommodation requests to court staff. In both of these treatments, defendants receive texts 14, 7, and 1 day prior to the court date.

Those who do not have phone numbers listed but do have an address are randomly assigned to receive a postcard containing basic information about their court date and accomodations.

Intervention Start Date

2018-03-13

Intervention End Date

2019-03-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Outcome of first arraignment, outcome of subsequent court dates for the same case, and final case disposition.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Outcomes of court appearances include fine paid ahead of the court date, appeared in court, and failure to appear and/or pay ahead.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Fines and fees assessed, use of a payment plan, use of rescheduling option, warrants, jail stays, future criminal, municipal, and traffic charges in the county. We will use text analysis to analyze the content of text conversation between defendants and court staff. Potential secondary outcomes: evictions, state-level criminal records

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Future criminal justice involvement will be measured over two years.

Experimental Design

We split the sample by availability of contact information. Those with phone numbers will be randomly selected to the SMS treatment groups or control groups. Those without phone numbers, but with addresses will be randomly selected to the postcard treatment or control group. Randomization occurs within day and location of arraignment strata. Those who have already been randomized will receive the same treatment for the subsequent case.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Randomization at the individual level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

90,000

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

50,000 total in the SMS sample (1/2 control, 1/4 treatment 1, 1/4 treatment 2), 40,000 total in the postcard sample (1/2 control, 1/2 treatment).

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We would like to detect effects within each of the three courtrooms: criminal, municipal, and traffic. The following are calculations based on the outcome of failure to appear on the first arraignment. ---Sample size required for each treatment vs. control--- Criminal -postcard: control mean = 0.18, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 1586 -SMS: control mean = 0.17, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 1667 Municipal -postcard: control mean = 0.34 treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 664 -SMS: control mean = 0.29, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 859 Traffic -postcard: control mean = 0.18, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 1507 -SMS: control mean = 0.14, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 859 ---Sample Size Required for SMS Treatment vs. SMS+ Treatment--- Criminal: SMS treatment arm mean: 0.14, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 1828 Municipal: SMS treatment arm mean: 0.24, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 975 Traffic: SMS treatment arm mean: 0.11, treatment arm size required for 18% treatment effect: 2343

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB