Scientific Definition
Caseloads far above professional norms guarantee weak defense for the poor.
Plain-English Definition
Caseloads far above professional norms guarantee weak defense for the poor.
Feynman Explanation
Justice is the most rationed thing in the system.
Core Principle
Caseloads far above professional norms guarantee weak defense for the poor.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Caseloads far above professional norms guarantee weak defense for the poor.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Resourcing the prosecution and starving the defense isn't an accident.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Justice is the most rationed thing in the system.
Examples
- Public defenders carrying 3-5x recommended caseloads.
- Resourcing the prosecution and starving the defense isn't an accident.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Hard caseload caps. Public-defender pay parity with DAs.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Hard caseload caps. Public-defender pay parity with DAs.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
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Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Charging by time rewards inefficiency and prolongs disputes.
Police agencies that keep seized assets gain a direct fiscal interest in seizures.
Fixed compliance costs scale punitively for small firms and entrench large ones.
Compliance programs designed to satisfy regulators, not prevent harm.
Stacking fines on low-income defendants creates debt traps and recidivism.
Decisions made to be defensible, not to be right.
Mandatory federal sourcing from prison factories crowds out small business and entrenches inefficient production.
Contingency-fee structures shape which cases get filed.
Fixed sentencing rules remove judicial discretion and inflate incarceration without reducing crime.
Trial penalties pressure even innocent defendants to plead guilty to avoid risk.
Per-inmate funding makes incarceration a budgetary asset for jurisdictions and contractors.
Confidential settlements buy silence and prevent precedent that would deter future harm.