Bing Lindsay, Goldstein Rebecca, Ho Helen, Pager Devah, Western Bruce
Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H4, Canada.
School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Dec 17;121(51):e2415066121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2415066121. Epub 2024 Dec 9.
US courts regularly assess fines, fees, and costs against criminal defendants. Court-related debt can cause continuing court involvement and incarceration, not because of new crimes, but because of unpaid financial obligations. We conducted an experiment with 606 people found guilty of misdemeanors in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Study participants were randomly selected to receive relief from all current and prior fines and fees assessed for criminal charges in the county. Fee relief reduced jail bookings 21 mo after randomization and the effect persisted over 44 mo of follow-up. Although fee relief reduced incarceration, financial sanctions had no effect on indicators of lawbreaking. Instead, the control group (who obtained no relief from fines and fees) were rearrested at significantly higher rates because of open arrest warrants for nonpayment. These results indicate the long-term and criminalizing effects of legal debt, supporting claims that financial sanctions disproportionately harm low-income defendants while contributing little to public safety.
美国法院经常对刑事被告处以罚款、费用和成本。与法庭相关的债务会导致持续的法庭介入和监禁，不是因为新的罪行，而是因为未支付的财务义务。我们对俄克拉荷马州俄克拉荷马县606名被判轻罪的人进行了一项实验。研究参与者被随机挑选，以减免该县对刑事指控评估的所有当前和先前的罚款及费用。费用减免在随机分组后21个月减少了入狱登记，且该效果在44个月的随访中持续存在。尽管费用减免减少了监禁，但经济制裁对违法指标没有影响。相反，对照组（未获得罚款和费用减免的人）因未支付的未执行逮捕令而再次被捕的比率显著更高。这些结果表明了法律债务的长期影响及其刑事定罪作用，支持了以下说法：经济制裁对低收入被告造成了不成比例的伤害，同时对公共安全贡献甚微。
