YLS faculty co-founders Tracey Meares and Tom Tyler began the Justice Collaboratory (the JC) in January 2015 as one of several academic institutions part of the U.S. Justice Department’s National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. Since then, the JC’s primary aim has been to lead fundamental criminal justice reform by using serious science for serious impact. We have a specific theory of change – the central goal of the criminal justice system must be to increase cooperation and trust between individuals and the state. We call this procedural justice. Today, the JC brings together scholars and researchers of diverse theoretical and methodological orientations at Yale University and elsewhere to work on issues related to institutional reform and policy innovation and advancement. The Collaboratory infuses theory and empirical research in order to achieve its goal of making criminal justice in America more effective, just, and democratic.