Same Crime: Different Punishment? Investigating Sentencing Disparities Between Irish and Non-irish Nationals in the Irish Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Ireland's economic growth from the late 1990s prompted sustained and diverse inward migration, resulting in substantial changes in the population and reshaping the social and cultural landscape. These shifts have also been visible among those processed by the criminal justice system, with a marked increase in the number of non-Irish nationals committed to Irish prisons. International research suggests that racism is a significant issue within criminal justice systems, with ethnic minority groups often disadvantaged. Despite these findings and the growth in non-Irish national prisoners, little research has assessed the impact of racial bias on Irish sentencing outcomes. This exploratory study examines whether disparities exist between the sentencing of Irish and non-Irish defendants, using data from the Irish Prison Service.

Have The England and Wales Guidelines Affected Sentencing Severity? An Empirical Analysis Using a Scale of Severity and Time-Series Analyses

“…In so doing, the Council would be promoting the principle of consistency of approach that sentencers are expected to uphold; only in this case the principle would be applied to the Council's own design of sentencing guidelines. We would also like to encourage other researchers to use our scale of severity, which could be applied to a wide range of areas, such as recent research on the effect of aggravating and mitigating factors (Maslen 2015;Lightowlers and Pina-Sánchez 2017;Belton 2018), consistency in sentencing (Pina-Sánchez and Linacre 2013; Pina-Sánchez and Grech 2017; Reid and MacAlister 2018), discrimination (Brandon and O'Connell 2018;Lammy 2017), proportionality (Fleetwood et al 2015;Vibla 2015), or deterrence, recidivism and risk assessment (Bell et al 2014;Raaijmakers et al 2017).…”

Equality Before the Courts? Studying Citizenship Disparities in Sentencing in Catalonia

“…Lastly, this criminalisation process could include disparities in sentencing. This is a recurrent object of study, with wide international evidence, reflecting possible biased application of the law (Baumer, 2013;Brandon & O'Conell, 2018). Nevertheless, in Spain, there is a lack of empirical studies on this issue.…”

The Judiciary Power of Discretion in Sanctioning the Facilitation of Unauthorised Stay in Poland

“…There is an extensive body of literature on racial discrepancies in sentencing in a number of Global North countries (Bushway and Forst 2013;Tillyer and Hartley 2010). Significantly less academic attention, though, was put on researching interconnections between sentencing and the immigration backgrounds of defendants (Aliverti 2013;Macías-Rojas 2016;Reyes 2012;Sklansky 2012), especially if it was not related to migration law (and migration crimes) and did not lead to deportation or detention of immigrants (with the exception: Brandon and O'Connell 2018). There is no doubt that judges, being a part of the society, are not resistant to the common perceptions of some groups and widespread urban legends of alleged dangerousness of other groups (like immigrants) embedded into the social tissue.…”

“…However, the role of national courts cannot be overestimated either (Perry 2003). In the literature, it has already been established that migrants have limited access to judicial protection and experience lower standards of legal protection during court proceedings (Dauvergne 2013) as well as harsher treatment in criminal proceedings (Brandon and O'Connell 2018;Macías-Rojas 2016).…”