Justice by Privilege? Social inequality in waivers of prosecution among youth.

• In Event: Diversion, assessment and pre-trial decision making in juvenile justice systems

Abstract

While equality before the law is a fundamental democratic principle, some disparities in justice delivery are intentional. For example, the sentencing and enforcement of sanctions for young offenders have long been the subject of special consideration in the Swedish criminal justice system. This study investigates social inequality in Swedish youths´ access to a waiver of prosecution before and after a youth justice reform, which, among other things, aimed to increase waivers of prosecution at the expense of monetary fines. It further explores how categories of socioeconomic status, gender and ethnic background intersect and how these intersections relate to youths' chances of being processed with minimal intervention in the justice system. Findings demonstrate that youths from families with highly educated parents are more likely to get their cases diverted from prosecution. Still, inequality only appeared after the implementation of the youth justice reform in 2007. While diversion away from prosecution increased for all youths, the increase was more substantial for youths whose parents had higher education, for youths with a Western background and for girls. This suggests that justice-response disparities arose as a knock-on effect of the youth policy reform. Furthermore, findings suggest that socioeconomic status, ethnic background and gender interact in terms of justice system inequality, with the influence of parental socioeconomic position being more substantial for girls and youths with Western backgrounds. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of sentencing decisions, intersectionality and a resource perspective.

Authors

• Anna Kahlmeter, Stockholm university, Criminology Department

• Olof Backman, Department of Criminology, Stockholm University, Sweden