TY - JOUR
T1 - Expanding the scope of sentencing research
T2 - Determinants of juvenile and adult punishment in the Netherlands
AU - Wermink, Hilde
AU - Johnson, Brian D.
AU - Nieuwbeerta, Paul
AU - de Keijser, Jan W.
PY - 2015/11/1
Y1 - 2015/11/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Disparity
KW - legal factors
KW - sentencing
KW - socio-demographic factors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84944028782&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1477370815597253
DO - 10.1177/1477370815597253
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84944028782
SN - 1477-3708
VL - 12
SP - 739
EP - 768
JO - European Journal of Criminology
JF - European Journal of Criminology
IS - 6
ER -