James M. Anderson

Director, Justice Policy Program; Director, RAND Institute for Civil Justice; Senior Behavioral Scientist

Pittsburgh Office

Education

J.D., Yale Law School; B.A. in ethics, politics, economics, Yale College

One Page Bio

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

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Overview

James Anderson is director of the Justice Policy Program and the RAND Institute for Civil Justice and a senior behavioral/social scientist at the RAND Corporation. He has been the principal investigator on a wide range of projects, ranging from policy implications of autonomous vehicle technology to understanding the effects of indigent defense systems. He has been funded by the National Institute of Justice, the National Institutes of Health, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the State of Pennsylvania, the Institute for Civil Justice, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation.

Anderson's work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Journal of Law and Economics, the Oxford University Press, and in numerous RAND publications. He has presented to a wide variety of academic and professional audiences. He is a member of the American Law Institute.

Before joining RAND, Anderson clerked for the Honorable Morton Greenberg of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and practiced law for ten years as an assistant federal defender representing death-sentenced prisoners. He received a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

Compensation for Accidental Injury and Illness
Improving the Production and Use of Forensic Science
Policy Implications of Autonomous Vehicle Technology

Selected Publications

James Anderson, Maya Buenaventura, and Paul Heaton, "Evaluating the Effect of Holistic Indigent Defense on Criminal Justice Outcomes," Harvard Law Review, 132, 2019

James Anderson and Paul Heaton, "How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make? The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes," Yale Law Journal, 122, 2012

Anderson, James M., Nidhi Kalra, Karlyn D. Stanley, Paul Sorensen, Constantine Samaras, and Tobi A. Oluwatola, Autonomous Vehicle Technology: A Guide for Policymakers, RAND Corporation (RR-443-2-RC), 2016

James M. Anderson, John M. MacDonald, Ricky Bluthenthal, and J. Scott Ashwood, "Reducing Crime by Shaping the Built Environment with Zoning: An Empirical Study of Los Angeles," University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 161(3), 2013

Anderson, James M., Paul Heaton, and Stephen J. Carroll, The U.S. Experience with No-Fault Automobile Insurance: A Retrospective, RAND Corporation (MG-860-ICJ), 2010

James Anderson and Eric Helland, "How Much Should Judges be Paid? An Empirical Study on the Effect of Judicial Pay on the State Bench," Stanford Law Review, 64(5), 2012

James Anderson, Jeffrey Kling, & Kate Stith, "Measuring Interjudge Sentencing Disparity: Before and After the Federal Sentencing Guidelines," Journal of Law & Economics, 42, 1999

James Anderson, Eric Helland, and Merritt McAlister, "Measuring How Stock Ownership Affects Which Judges and Justice Hear Cases," Georgetown Law Journal, 103, 2015

Honors & Awards

RAND Bronze Award, RAND
Stephen J. Carroll Distinguished Scholar at RAND, RAND Institute for Civil Justice

Recent Media Appearances

Interviews: Insurance & Financial Advisor; The New York Times; Righteous Convictions; Talks on Law

Video Interviews: The Value of Forensics; Driverless Cars–A Shift In Risk

Commentary

Racial Discrimination

The Compounding Effects of Racism: Q&A with James Anderson, Rachel Perera, and Heather Gomez-Bendaña
RAND's James Anderson, Rachel Perera, and Heather Gomez-Bendaña are working to create an interactive tool that illustrates how the effects of bias compound over time. Their aim is to improve understanding of how seemingly small disparities can add up to create significant inequality.
Sep 10, 2021
Law Enforcement

From Warrior to Guardian: A Systems Approach to Reduce Police Violence
Personal accountability will always have a role in policing. But the kind of cultural change that is necessary to prevent tragedy is often best tackled by focusing on the system rather than merely blaming the individual officer.
Jul 1, 2020
CalMatters
Fixing Judicial Recusals
Recently, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recused himself in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association, a case with important implications for the power industry, while Justice Stephen Breyer failed to do so, apparently in error. This misstep illustrates some of the problems with the judicial recusal system.
Feb 10, 2016
Inside Sources
Transportation Safety

What If Distracted Driving Was Safe?
According to consumer research, the ability to consume media, write an email, or even sleep during transport is a key selling point for autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars), which could be widely available in the fairly near future. Autonomous vehicle technology could also produce a wide range of public benefits.
Jul 1, 2014
The RAND Blog
Transportation Planning

With Self-Driving Cars, Promise Outweighs Peril
The promise of autonomous vehicles is finally near to being realized and the substantial benefits to society in terms of safety, mobility, and fuel economy cannot be ignored. It is not too early for policy makers to begin to think about the challenges that lie ahead.
Jan 29, 2014
The Detroit News

Publications

Tool
How the Effects of Racial Bias Compound
Researchers illustrate the ways in which small effects of racial bias can compound over lifetimes. Users of this tool can adjust the amount of racial bias to see its effects on educational achievement, income growth, and wealth accumulation.
Jul 27, 2022
Journal Article
The Unrealized Promise of Forensic Science: A Study of Its Production and Use
To better understand the actual role of forensic science, we collected data on the prevalence and use of forensic evidence in five jurisdictions in multiple stages of the criminal process.
Aug 3, 2021
Journal Article
Statistical Analysis of Presidential Pardons
This report is a study of pardon-petition evaluations performed by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, a unit in the Department of Justice.
Jul 6, 2021
Multimedia
Opioid Litigation: What's New, and What Does It Mean for Future Litigation?
More than 2,000 plaintiffs have joined the largest civil trial in U.S. history: National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL 2804). In this virtual symposium, experts discuss the opioid litigation and its effects on the future of mass litigation.
Feb 9, 2021
Report
Autonomous Vehicles and the Future of Auto Insurance
RAND researchers investigated the impact that autonomous vehicles (AVs) could have on U.S. automobile insurance. They found that the existing U.S. auto insurance system should be flexible enough to accommodate the initial introduction of AVs.
Dec 17, 2020
Tool
Forensic DNA Surveillance Tool
This tool shows criminal justice policymakers how state policies affect the size and racial composition of forensic DNA databases. Users can view current state policies or change inputs and assumptions to see how database composition is impacted.
Aug 12, 2019
Report
Forensic Familial and Moderate Stringency DNA Searches: Policies and Practices in the United States, England, and Wales
Forensic DNA databases help solve crimes. When an exact DNA match is not found, familial DNA and moderate stringency search may provide investigative leads. Evidence-based practices can guide policymakers on the use and effectiveness of this method.
Aug 12, 2019
Research Brief
Hacked Autonomous Vehicles: Who May Be Liable for Damages? An Initial Investigation into How Civil Liability Systems Can Prepare
Existing civil liability law is flexible enough to address most hacked autonomous vehicle claims. Manufacturers and operators will need to stay abreast of attacks and take precautions to avoid similar attacks and reduce liability exposure.
Jul 12, 2019
Report
When Autonomous Vehicles Are Hacked, Who Is Liable?
The arrival of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the roads will require policymakers, industry, and the public to adapt to the risk of hackers attacking these vehicles. RAND researchers explored the civil liability issues related to hacked AVs.
Jul 12, 2019
Journal Article
The Effects of Holistic Defense on Criminal Justice Outcomes
Using administrative data covering over half a million cases and a quasi-experimental research design, we estimate the causal effect of holistic defense on case outcomes and future offending.
Jan 29, 2019
Research Brief
Holistic Representation: An Innovative Approach to Defending Poor Clients Can Reduce Incarceration and Save Taxpayer Dollars — Without Harm to Public Safety
Holistic defense is an innovative and promising approach to defending poor clients in criminal cases, and this brief summarizes the first large-scale empirical evaluation of the impact of holistic representation on criminal justice outcomes.
Jan 11, 2019
Report
Measuring Automated Vehicle Safety: Forging a Framework
This report presents a framework for measuring safety in automated vehicles (AVs): how to define safety for AVs, how to measure safety for AVs, and how to communicate what is learned or understood about AVs.
Oct 11, 2018
Report
Rethinking Insurance and Liability in the Transformative Age of Autonomous Vehicles
The "Rethinking Insurance and Liability in the Transformative Age of Autonomous Vehicles" workshop examined the implications of autonomous vehicle technology for insurance and liability regimes. This publication summarizes key issues from the event.
Jun 8, 2018
Journal Article
The Price of Justice: New National and State-Level Estimates of the Judicial and Legal Costs of Crime to Taxpayers
Using a Monte Carlo simulation approach to take into account uncertainty in the data, this study finds the national average costs to taxpayers for judicial/legal services per reported crime. In order to efficiently allocate these limited funds, we need to know how much people benefit from crime prevention.
Aug 25, 2016
Report
Autonomous Vehicle Technology: A Guide for Policymakers
Autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to significantly improve social welfare. This report addresses the numerous legislative, regulatory, and liability issues this technology will raise.
Mar 22, 2016
Journal Article
Fixing Judicial Recusals
If judges or justices own stock in the company of a litigant, they must recuse themselves from hearing the case.
Mar 16, 2016
Journal Article
Measuring How Stock Ownership Affects Which Judges and Justices Hear Cases
This study aims to measure the impact of recusals due to stock ownership on the pool of judges and justices that hear cases involving publicly traded corporations.
Sep 14, 2015
Report
The Changing Role of Criminal Law in Controlling Corporate Behavior
This report addresses the use of criminal sanctions to control corporate behavior -- prosecutions both of corporations and of employees for actions taken on corporations' behalf.
Dec 9, 2014
Report
License Plate Readers for Law Enforcement: Opportunities and Obstacles
Explores issues concerning license plate reader technology: funding, implementation, types of use, data retention policies, and privacy concerns.
Jul 2, 2014
Research Brief
Autonomous Vehicle Technology: How to Best Realize Its Social Benefits
RAND researchers examined the technological advances in the field of autonomous vehicles, the benefits and risks of this technology, and the potential effects of various regulations and absence of same on the development of this technology.
Jan 6, 2014
Journal Article
Reducing Crime by Shaping the Built Environment with Zoning: An Empirical Study of Los Angeles
The authors find that neighborhoods in which there was a zoning change experienced a significant decline in crime.
2013
Report
No More Rights Without Remedies: An Impact Evaluation of the National Crime Victim Law Institute's Victims' Rights Clinics
This report describes how representation from National Crime Victim Law Institute clinics affects the exercise of rights in individual cases, legislation, court rules, appellate decisions, and media reporting.
Dec 27, 2012
Journal Article
How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make? The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes
The vast difference in outcomes for defendants assigned different counsel types raises important questions about the adequacy and fairness of the criminal justice system.
Oct 1, 2012
Journal Article
Comment on Doug Kysar's "What Climate Change Can Do About Tort Law"
In this Response, the author sketches two problems with Professor Doug Kysar's argument regarding climate change litigation and effect on tort law.
Aug 1, 2012
Journal Article
How Much Should Judges Be Paid? An Empirical Study on the Effect of Judicial Pay on the State Bench
Judicial salaries have a small but significant effect on the likelihood of exit and thus the length of judicial tenure, and a small effect on the background of judges that join the appellate bench.
May 1, 2012
Report
Compensation for Combat Deaths: Policy Considerations
This briefing identifies policy questions related to compensating service members and their survivors for fatality risk. It compares combat fatality patterns with fatalities occurring in other contexts and discusses current compensation programs.
Mar 15, 2012
Draft
How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make? The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes
Describes the results of a study to examine the effect of defense counsel on outcomes in murder prosecutions in Philadelphia.
Dec 16, 2011
Report
Innovations in the Provision of Legal Services in the United States: An Overview for Policymakers
Discusses innovation's role in the legal services industry, factors affecting innovation's production, and the research and data infrastructure needed by policymakers to understand whether restrictions on the practice of the law should be altered.
Oct 26, 2011
Report
Case Weights for Federal Defender Organizations
This report presents a system of case weights for estimating the funding and staffing requirements of federal defender organizations, discusses factors that might influence defender time expenditures, and describes how such weights should be used.
Aug 18, 2011
Report
The U.S. Experience with No-Fault Automobile Insurance: A Retrospective
This monograph reviews the history of no-fault auto insurance in the United States and concludes that political support for no-fault dissipated because premium costs under no-fault have been higher than tort largely due to higher medical costs.
Feb 2, 2010
Research Brief
What Happened to No-Fault Automobile Insurance?
This brief reviews the decline in popularity of no-fault automobile insurance. The main reason for this decline is rising costs: no-fault offers more medical services to accident victims and pays more for the same care than tort insurance.
Feb 1, 2010
Research Brief
Diagnostic Abuse in Silica Litigation
This brief analyzes the factors that led to the exposure of widespread abuse in the diagnoses in thousands of silica injury claims in Texas, then suggests ways to uncover such abuses in mass personal-injury litigation more easily in the future.
Dec 4, 2009
Report
Securing Rights for Victims: A Process Evaluation of the National Crime Victim Law Institute's Victims' Rights Clinics
This book discusses how some clinics have won significant gains at the appellate and federal court levels concerning victim standing, the rights to be consulted and heard, and the right to privacy.
Dec 4, 2009
Report
The Abuse of Medical Diagnostic Practices in Mass Litigation: The Case of Silica
This report reviews the court proceedings that led to the uncovering of abusive diagnostic practices in silica litigation, then identifies ways in which similar practices could be uncovered or prevented in the future.
Nov 13, 2009
Journal Article
Liability and Regulation of Autonomous Vehicle Technologies
Autonomous vehicle technologies and advanced driver-assistance systems have the potential to improve transportation safety and efficiency.
2009
Draft
Understanding Mass Tort Defendant Incentives for Confidential Settlements: Lessons from Bayer's Cerivastatin Litigation Strategy
Explores mass tort defendant incentives for confidential settlements using Bayer's cerivastatin litigation as a case study.
Oct 9, 2008
Journal Article
The Missing Theory of Variable Selection in the Economic Analysis of Tort Law
The Article argues that the economic analysis of tort law has yet to satisfactorily answer a critical threshold question: which of the many inputs that lead to an accident should be included in a court's liability analysis?
2007
Journal Article
The Missing Theory of Variable Selection in the Economic Analysis of Tort Law
The Article argues that the economic analysis of tort law has yet to satisfactorily answer a critical threshold question: which of the many inputs that lead to an accident should be included in a court's liability analysis?
2006
Journal Article
Measuring Interjudge Sentencing Disparity Before and After the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
This paper evaluates the impact of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines on inter-judge sentencing disparity, which is defined as the differences in average nominal prison sentence lengths for comparable caseloads assigned to different judges.
Apr 1, 1999
Journal Article
Measuring Inter-Judge Sentencing Disparity Before and After the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
This paper evaluates the impact of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines on inter-judge sentencing disparity, which is defined as the differences in average nominal prison sentence lengths for comparable caseloads assigned to different judges.
Dec 1, 1998