Foreign Domestic Helpers and Sentencing in Hong Kong

• In Event: International Perspectives in Criminal Justice

Abstract

Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs), officially known as Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs) in Hong Kong, are well known as a vulnerable population. Separated from their families, overworked, underpaid, and frequently the subject of violent or sexual abuse from their employers, it is little wonder that MDWs are drawn into the world’s criminal justice systems both as victims and perpetrators. Hong Kong is a jurisdiction in which FDHs play a critical economic role, contributing 3.6 percent of GDP. Given the numerous prominent cases of FDHs being victimized by and committing crimes against their employers in recent years, this research paper documents the results of an empirical survey of Hong Kong trial court sentencing in cases involving FDHs, both as victims and perpetrators. Drawing from the substantial academic literature on discrimination in sentencing (e.g. Horwitz & Wasserman, 1980; Brewer, 1984; Sweeney & Haney, 1992; Spohn, 2018), this effort to code and analyse the sentencing practices in all available criminal cases involving FDHs from 1997-2017 aims to assess whether FDHs (and their victimizers) are treated any differently from other convicted persons, after controlling for prominent sentencing determinants such as the offence committed, age, gender, foreign nationality, criminal record, being unrepresented and breach of trust.

Author

• Daniel Pascoe, City University of Hong Kong