Cumulative (Dis)advantage, (Dis)trust, and Sanctioning Disparities 1: Insights from Europe and the United States

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

Criminal justice systems across Europe and North America exhibit persistent ethnic and socioeconomic sanctioning disparities. Such disparities typically cumulate during case processing - from police stops to sentencing – and also cumulate ‘intersectionally’, i.e., when people have more than one status characteristic that is associated with unfavorable sanctioning outcomes. Relatively disadvantaged communities also tend to trust legal institutions less, while also being trusted less by legal institutions, further exacerbating inequality in justice outcomes.
This panel brings together researchers from the Netherlands, the United States, and Norway to explore the mechanisms driving these disparities. It opens with a presentation on the main themes of the panel in which we also outline an ambitious research agenda on cumulative sanctioning disparities and trust deficits, and how scientists could contribute to evidence-informed interventions to repair such disparities and deficits. This is followed by three empirical studies:
• A Dutch study analyzing how migration background and socioeconomic status shape juvenile sanctioning disparities across the criminal justice system.
• A U.S.-based study investigating prosecutorial decision-making across three jurisdictions and relation to racial sentencing disparities.
• A Norwegian study examining judicial discretion in sentencing and penal administration, with a focus on inconsistencies in alternative sanctions in the form of electronic tagging.
Together, these presentations provide an internationally comparative perspective on the intersections of race, class, and trust in criminal justice. By exploring disparities in multiple countries, this panel not only advances theoretical and empirical scholarship, but also fosters discussion on policy solutions to mitigate cumulative disadvantage and repair trust deficits.

Subtopic

• Topic 5: Social Control and Criminal Justice / Courts and Sentencing and Penal Decision Making (Sentencing and Penal Decisionmaking WG)

Chair

• Arjen Leerkes, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Maastricht University

Individual Presentations

• Cumulative Disadvantage, Trust, and Criminal Justice: A Conceptual Framework and agenda for the IST Project - Petra de Jong, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Arjen Leerkes, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Maastricht University

• Migration, Socio-Economic Status, and Juvenile Sanctions: Assessing Cumulative Disadvantage in the Dutch Criminal Justice System - Dmitrii Shchetinin, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Petra de Jong, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Arjen Leerkes, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Maastricht University

• Negotiating Racial Justice: Examining Prosecutorial Decision-making and Criminal Case Outcomes across Three Maryland Jurisdictions - Brian Johnson, University of Maryland; Lydia Becker, University of Maryland at College Park; Allison Redlich, George Mason University; Miranda Galvin, Penn State University

• From Courtroom to Correctional Services: How Judges and Correctional Officers Exercise Discretion in Sentencing and Penal Administration - Henriette Tøssebro, University of Bergen; Kelly Solem-Young, University of Bergen