Research Archives - Page 25 of 42 - Fines and Fees Justice Center

The Limits of Fairer Fines: Lessons from Germany

To combat the significant number of low level cases being sentenced to short periods of incarceration, Germany increased their use of fines, shortly thereafter adopting day fines to ensure that …

Advancing Financial Justice in San Francisco: The Experience and Lessons of the City’s Financial Justice Project

This paper summarizes the lessons, successes, and challenges of the San Francisco Financial Justice Project, especially concerning criminal justice fines and fees reform.

Framing the System of Monetary Sanctions as Predatory: Policies, Practices, and Motivations

This literature review surveys articles published in the University of California, Los Angeles Criminal Justice Law Review that discuss how court fines and fees may be viewed as predatory.

The Role of Fines and Fees on Probation Outcomes

Although fines and fees can leave individuals with high amounts of debt, few court systems use standardized measures to determine an individual’s ability to pay. The amount of fees and …

Salience, Incentives, and Timely Compliance: Evidence from Speeding Tickets

As monetary sanctions in law enforcement have become increasingly more prevalent and their budgetary significance non-trivial, little is known about why certain behavioral interventions increase compliance in some contexts but …

Ankle Monitors Are Replacing Cash Bail, But At A Cost

This article discusses how people who are court-ordered to participate in electronic monitoring bear the burden of the program costs and the risk of being jailed for nonpayment.

Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2019, Featuring Supplemental Data from April 2020

For the first time, the Federal Reserve collected information about how criminal legal debt from fines and fees affects American families.

On Thin Ice: Bureaucratic Processes of Monetary Sanctions and Job Insecurity

This article shows how court debt collection practices affect employment opportunities based on research conducted in Illinois and Washington State.

Municipal Fines and Fees: A 50-State Survey of State Laws

This report, including an interactive map, provides a 50-state analysis of state laws that regulate municipal imposition and collection of fines and fees. The analysis is based on 52 factors, organized into 7 broad categories, that measure the extent to which state laws “prohibit, sustain, encourage or neutralize” municipal reliance on fines and fees.

Driving Toward Justice: How ending driver’s license suspensions for unpaid traffic tickets helps communities without impacting court collections

This brief describes reforms that were implemented after the San Francisco Superior Court’s decision to eliminate debt-based driver’s license suspensions.