Aurelie Ouss Leads Research Reducing Court No-Shows in NYC by 36 Percent

Where would we be without our phone alarms, birthday notifications from Facebook, and appointment reminders from Google Calendar? Dr. Aurelie Ouss, the newest Penn Criminology faculty member, led a team of researchers in New York City using text message notifications to remind people to attend their court dates. She found that not everyone who misses a summons does so willfully or even fully understanding the consequences of a missed court date: an immediate arrest warrant. This reduction in missed court dates led to 31,000 fewer arrest warrants issued. For more information, see the article in Penn Current.