Robynn Cox

University of California, Riverside Website

Robynn Cox is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at UC Riverside. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Georgia State University.

Voting History

Pretrial detention

Reducing the number of people detained pretrial will lead to a net increase in crime in the medium- to long-term.

Vote Confidence
Strongly Disagree 9
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Disagree 7
Comments

Detaining people pretrial, especially for non-violent offenses, has many costs and may lead to greater crime in the long run due to the costs of being detained (e.g., loss of employment, loss of housing, family separation, etc.).

Ending the use of cash bail will meaningfully reduce the number of people detained pretrial.

Vote Confidence
Agree 7
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 7
Comments

In theory it could but it depends on implementation and what the cash system is replaced with. DC was an early reformer and has had lots of success.

Using risk assessment to inform detention decisions will meaningfully reduce the number of people detained pretrial.

Vote Confidence
Strongly Disagree 9
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Neutral/No Opinion 5
Comments

There are lots of problems with risk assessments. They have baked in racial and class bias. It’s not clear that they have meaningful reduced the number of people detained pre-trial and chances are they will increase racial disparities in pre-trial detention. Of course, criminal legal system actors like it because they let them off the hook politically for bail decisions.