Prosecutors make some of the criminal legal system's most consequential decisions-they decide whether to file charges or decline prosecution. Yet those decisions are often made weeks or months after an arrest, leaving defendants, victims, and courts waiting while critical information remains unavailable.

In this webinar, researchers from the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center will present findings from one of the first randomized controlled trials conducted inside a working prosecutor's office. Conducted in partnership with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, the study tested whether providing prosecutors with earlier information from outreach to complaining witnesses affected charging decisions in non-intimate assault cases.

The results demonstrate that early victim outreach substantially accelerated prosecutorial decision-making while also increasing the rate at which prosecutors declined cases. Drawing on both experimental evidence and interviews with participating prosecutors, the presentation will explore how reducing informational uncertainty influenced prosecutorial discretion and discuss the implications for prosecutorial practice and evidence-based criminal justice reform.

Register here: https://smu.zoom.us/meeting/register/OiS2OM3hTT-1zwThih_Jpg

The CJR Workshop Series offers a forum for academics to share works-in-progress. Workshops are limited to 20 participants on a first-come, first-served basis.