IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/crimin/v63y2023i4p984-1002..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign and Dangerous? Unpacking the Role of Judges and Prosecutors in Sentencing Disparities in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Kemp
  • Daniel Varona

Abstract

Given the salience of the principle of equality before the law, there is growing interest in understanding the relationship between immigration and sentencing disparities; however, research remains relatively scarce in Europe. This article examines, firstly, whether non-citizens receive harsher punishment outcomes in Spain and, secondly, the role of several decisions made by judges and prosecutors in producing punishment inequalities. The results show that foreigners are more likely to be imprisoned and that this is related to disparities in prosecutorial recommendations, plea bargaining and the suspension of prison sentences. However, we find mixed evidence of discriminatory practices in the imposition of prison sentences and no evidence with regard to sentence length. The findings are discussed in relation to theoretical debates and practical implications regarding immigration and criminal justice.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Kemp & Daniel Varona, 2023. "Foreign and Dangerous? Unpacking the Role of Judges and Prosecutors in Sentencing Disparities in Spain," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 63(4), pages 984-1002.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:crimin:v:63:y:2023:i:4:p:984-1002.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/bjc/azac068
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:crimin:v:63:y:2023:i:4:p:984-1002.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/bjc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.