Expanding the scope of sentencing research: Determinants of juvenile and adult punishment in the Netherlands

Autor: Paul Nieuwbeerta, Jan W. de Keijser, Hilde Wermink, Brian D. Johnson
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: European Journal of Criminology. 12:739-768
ISSN: 1741-2609
1477-3708
DOI: 10.1177/1477370815597253
Popis: Research on legal and extralegal disparity in criminal sentencing has been conducted primarily in the United States, and, to a lesser extent, in select European nations. Largely separate research literatures have developed around juvenile and adult sentencing decisions, and few studies examine both prosecutorial and judicial punishment outcomes. This study examines the effects of diverse legal and socio-demographic characteristics on both prosecutorial and judicial punishments, for both juveniles and adults. It assesses the broad generalizability of prior research and theorizing, analyzing punishment outcomes for all criminal suspects registered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Netherlands in 2007. Results indicate that offense, case-processing and criminal history characteristics weigh heavily in prosecutorial and judicial decision-making. There are also direct effects of age, gender and nationality on both prosecutorial and sentencing decisions, for both juvenile and adult offenders, in the Dutch justice system. These findings are discussed in relation to the broad discretion exercised by Dutch court actors and the paper concludes with recommendations for future sentencing research in international contexts.
Databáze: OpenAIRE