ideas42, New York, NY 10004, USA.
Department of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Science. 2020 Nov 6;370(6517). doi: 10.1126/science.abb6591. Epub 2020 Oct 8.
Each year, millions of Americans fail to appear in court for low-level offenses, and warrants are then issued for their arrest. In two field studies in New York City, we make critical information salient by redesigning the summons form and providing text message reminders. These interventions reduce failures to appear by 13 to 21% and lead to 30,000 fewer arrest warrants over a 3-year period. In laboratory experiments, we find that whereas criminal justice professionals see failures to appear as relatively unintentional, laypeople believe they are more intentional. These lay beliefs reduce support for policies that make court information salient and increase support for punishment. Our findings suggest that criminal justice policies can be made more effective and humane by anticipating human error in unintentional offenses.
每年，都有数百万美国人因低级违法行为而未能出庭，随后便会发出逮捕他们的逮捕令。在纽约市的两项实地研究中，我们通过重新设计传票并提供短信提醒来突出显示关键信息。这些干预措施将未出庭的人数减少了 13%至 21%，并在 3 年内减少了 3 万张逮捕令。在实验室实验中，我们发现，虽然刑事司法专业人员认为未出庭是相对非故意的，但外行人认为他们更有意图。这些外行人的观念降低了对使法庭信息突出的政策的支持，并增加了对惩罚的支持。我们的研究结果表明，通过预测非故意犯罪中的人为错误，可以使刑事司法政策更加有效和人性化。
