Introduction
During the last decade there has been an ongoing debate on the influence that certain ‘subjective’ factors have on court sentences. Many authors argue that the juridical system is influenced by certain subjective factors in its decision making process. Evidence shows “that juvenile offenders in adult court are sentenced more severely than their young adult counterparts”. (Kurlychek & Johnson, 2004) Other evidence shows also “a significant, strong and independent impact of unemployment on pretrial and post sentencing incarceration” (Chiricos & Bales, 1991).
Unemployment and punishment
Various authors have tried to prove that labor market marginality is a factor that influences court sentencing. They argue that combined with other factors, such as race, it becomes clearly a determining factor. Nevertheless, the data available have been considered not to be conclusive. Chiricos and Bales undertook in 1991 a research in order to assess the relationship between labor market marginality and court sentencing. They performed a multivariate logic and an ELS evaluation for this purpose. The study was conducted by selecting felons on a random sampling basis. Differentiating from their predecessors they tried to look at the impact unemployment had on the entire criminal justice process. Thus, they analyzed outcomes in relation to prosecution, incarceration and (in/out) and length of incarceration.The study found that from the interaction of race and unemployment “the greatest likelihood of incarceration is for unemployed black defendants, especially those who are young males or charged with violent and public order crimes” (Chiricos & Bales, 1991).
Juvenile delinquency
Another problem was that juvenile delinquents were treated more severely than young adult offenders. In 2004 Kurlychek and Johnson undertook a study on this purpose.In the beginning of the 1990’s 49 states and the District of Columbia expanded the provisions by which juveniles could reach adult courts.These provisions allowed that based on prior criminal history and in consideration of the current offense, they could be transferred for trial in adults courts. Thus, it is important to better understand the criminal processing and sentencing outcomes for this category (Kurlychek & Johnson, 2004). They found that juvenile status interacted and influenced other sentencing factors such as type of offense, severity and prior criminal history. Thus courts were more eager to punish juveniles more severely than young adults. The figure below shows how juvenile status influences sentencing.
Conclusions
There are many subjective factors which influence court sentencing. Two of them are juvenile status and unemployment. Of course, these factors do have a stronger effect combined together and with other factors such as race and ethnicity or religion.
References
Chiricos, Th. & Bales, W. (1991).”Unemployment and punishment: an empirical assessment.” Criminology, vol. 29, no. 4.
Kurlychek, M. & Johnson, B. (2004). “The juvenile penalty: a comparison of juvenile and young adult sentencing outcomes in criminal court”. Criminology, vol. 42, no. 2.