IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17712.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Causal Impact of Counsel at First Appearance: Evidence from Two Randomized Control Trials

Author

Listed:
  • Naufal, George S

    (Texas A&M University)

  • Patterson, Bethany

    (Texas A&M University)

  • Danser, Renee

    (Harvard Law School)

  • Greiner, D. James

    (Harvard Law School)

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of defense counsel at first appearance (CAFA) on criminal justice outcomes using randomized control trials in two Texas counties. The study evaluates the influence of CAFA on bond amounts, pretrial release, conditions, and post-magistration outcomes such as recidivism and failure to appear. Results show that while CAFA reduces bond amounts and influences bond types in one jurisdiction, its effects on pretrial release and recidivism are limited. These findings highlight jurisdictional differences and suggest that CAFA's impact may be more modest than previous studies indicate, underscoring the need for further research in this area.

Suggested Citation

  • Naufal, George S & Patterson, Bethany & Danser, Renee & Greiner, D. James, 2025. "The Causal Impact of Counsel at First Appearance: Evidence from Two Randomized Control Trials," IZA Discussion Papers 17712, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17712
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17712.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Will Dobbie & Jacob Goldin & Crystal S. Yang, 2018. "The Effects of Pretrial Detention on Conviction, Future Crime, and Employment: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 201-240, February.
    2. Stephanie Holmes Didwania, 2020. "The Immediate Consequences of Federal Pretrial Detention," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 22(1), pages 24-74.
    3. Arpit Gupta & Christopher Hansman & Ethan Frenchman, 2016. "The Heavy Costs of High Bail: Evidence from Judge Randomization," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 471-505.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johannes W. Ligtenberg & Tiemen Woutersen, 2024. "Multidimensional clustering in judge designs," Papers 2406.09473, arXiv.org.
    2. Alexander Lundberg, 2024. "Do prosecutors induce the innocent to plead guilty?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(2), pages 650-674, April.
    3. Megan T Stevenson, 2018. "Distortion of Justice: How the Inability to Pay Bail Affects Case Outcomes," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(4), pages 511-542.
    4. Albright, Alex, 2022. "No Money Bail, No Problems? Trade-offs in a Pretrial Automatic Release Program," SocArXiv 42pbz_v1, Center for Open Science.
    5. Pekkurnaz, Didem, 2023. "Causal effect of obesity on the probability of employment in women in Turkey," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    6. David Arnold & Will Dobbie & Crystal S. Yang, 2017. "Racial Bias in Bail Decisions," Working Papers 611, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    7. Amanda Agan & Matthew Freedman & Emily Owens, 2017. "Is Your Lawyer a Lemon? Incentives and Selection in the Public Provision of Criminal Defense," Working Papers 613, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    8. Elsa Augustine & Johanna Lacoe & Steven Raphael & Alissa Skog, 2022. "The Impact of Felony Diversion in San Francisco," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 683-709, June.
    9. Eric Chyn & Brigham Frandsen & Emily C. Leslie, 2024. "Examiner and Judge Designs in Economics: A Practitioner's Guide," NBER Working Papers 32348, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. David Arnold & Will Dobbie & Crystal S Yang, 2018. "Racial Bias in Bail Decisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(4), pages 1885-1932.
    11. St. Louis, Stacie, 2022. "Bail denied or bail too high? Disentangling cumulative disadvantage by pretrial detention type," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Angela Zhou & Andrew Koo & Nathan Kallus & Rene Ropac & Richard Peterson & Stephen Koppel & Tiffany Bergin, 2021. "An Empirical Evaluation of the Impact of New York's Bail Reform on Crime Using Synthetic Controls," Papers 2111.08664, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    13. Joshua Grossman & Julian Nyarko & Sharad Goel, 2023. "Racial bias as a multi‐stage, multi‐actor problem: An analysis of pretrial detention," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 86-133, March.
    14. repec:jdm:journl:v:17:y:2022:i:6:p:1176-1207 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Will Dobbie & Crystal S. Yang, 2021. "The US Pretrial System: Balancing Individual Rights and Public Interests," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 49-70, Fall.
    16. repec:cup:judgdm:v:17:y:2022:i:6:p:1176-1207 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Shroff, Ravi & Vamvourellis, Konstantinos, 2022. "Pretrial release judgments and decision fatigue," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117579, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Albright, Alex, 2022. "No Money Bail, No Problems? Trade-offs in a Pretrial Automatic Release Program," SocArXiv 42pbz, Center for Open Science.
    19. Diaz, Carmen L. & Lowder, Evan Marie & Northcutt Bohmert, Miriam & Ying, Michelle & Hatfield, Troy, 2024. "A retrospective study of the role of probation revocation in future criminal justice involvement," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    20. Jon Kleinberg & Himabindu Lakkaraju & Jure Leskovec & Jens Ludwig & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2018. "Human Decisions and Machine Predictions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 237-293.
    21. Amanda Agan & Matthew Freedman & Emily Owens, 2021. "Is Your Lawyer a Lemon? Incentives and Selection in the Public Provision of Criminal Defense," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(2), pages 294-309, May.
    22. Jason Baron, E. & Jacob, Brian & Ryan, Joseph, 2023. "Pretrial juvenile detention," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    first appearance; RCT; bail; pretrial release;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17712. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.