Anti-Immigrant Bias in the Choice Between Punitive and Rehabilitative Justice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6228367 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Samina Riaz (0000-0002-8933-0836, European University Institute), Maik Hamjediers (0000-0002-7888-0189, European University Institute) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1234 • E-ISSN: 1469-2112 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0007123425100884 |
| OpenAlex | W4415836371 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
We study bias in judicial authorities’ efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate immigrant offenders into society. Our empirical strategy leverages a distinctive feature of the German criminal code: the optional application of rehabilitative juvenile criminal law or punitive general criminal law for eighteen- to twenty-year-old offenders, based on a subjective assessment of offenders’ psychological ‘maturity’ by judges. Drawing on complete records of 792,000 court hearings between 2009 and 2018, we show that immigrant offenders are about ten percentage points less likely to be sentenced under juvenile law compared to natives convicted for the same crime. The immigrant–native gap in rehabilitative justice correlates with anti-immigrant sentiment across space and has spiked in recent years, suggesting a link between the salience of group-based identities and judicial decision-making. Our findings raise concerns about equal legal treatment and highlight that biases in the application of rehabilitative justice may contribute to higher recidivism rates among immigrant offenders
Making Sense of Sensitivity
Judicial Ingroup Bias in the Shadow of Terrorism
Racial Bias in Bail Decisions
The Punishment Consequences of Lacking National Membership in Germany, 1998–2010
Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Sentences
Does Regression Produce Representative Estimates of Causal Effects
Victim or Threat? Shipwrecks, Terrorist Attacks, and Asylum Decisions in France
When Issue Salience Affects Adjudication
Can Racial Diversity among Judges Affect Sentencing Outcomes
Judging Judicial Discretion
Administrative Records Mask Racially Biased Policing
Juvenile Arrest and Collateral Educational Damage in the Transition to Adulthood
The Criminal Case Processing of Foreign Nationals in the Netherlands
Noncitizen Justice
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |