Temporal-Spatial Analysis of the Distance to Court and FTA in Communities of Color

• In Event: Fear, Crime Classification, and Disparity

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between spatial accessibility to criminal courts and failure to appear (FTA) in court among justice-involved individuals in New York City, focusing on communities of color. For this study, CJA used a dataset of over 60,000 cases from arrests that occurred in 2023. We conducted a temporal-spatial analysis using ArcGIS Pro, DBSCAN clustering, and statistical modeling to assess whether travel distance and transportation time to court are associated with court appearance outcomes. Our findings reveal significant geographic disparities in transit times across clusters, suggesting uneven access to court infrastructure. While average driving and transit times differed marginally between individuals who appeared and those who failed to appear, clusters with the most extended average travel times demonstrated notably higher FTA rates. The study emphasizes the need for policy interventions—such as transportation assistance, flexible court scheduling, and on-site childcare—and future research into the social, psychological, and structural factors that affect court attendance. This work contributes to growing efforts in criminology to understand how geography, infrastructure, and inequality intersect within the pretrial process.

Authors

• Jasmine Hwang, NYCJA

• Nathan Nisenson, NYCJA

• Elizabeth Saba, NYCJA