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

Hilde Wermink*, Brian D. Johnson, Paul Nieuwbeerta, Jan W. de Keijser

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)739-768
Number of pages30
JournalEuropean Journal of Criminology
Volume12
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2015

Keywords

  • Disparity
  • legal factors
  • sentencing
  • socio-demographic factors

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