Case study: Sentencing violent juvenile offenders in color blind France: does ethnicity matter?

Sebastian Roché (1) , Mirta B. Gordon (2) , Marie-Aude Depuiset (2)

1 PACTE - Pacte, Laboratoire de sciences sociales
2 AMA - Analyse de données, Modélisation et Apprentissage automatique [Grenoble]

This chapter aspires to inform the debate on race, crime, and justice in a continental European context, based on an empirical study of disparities affecting juveniles in French courts. We investigated whether and to what extent ethnicity is associated with sanctioning in juvenile courts. We examined a large dataset that includes all cases of serious crimes by juveniles in two juvenile courts, in two jurisdictions, over more than 20 years (1984-2005). The results may advance understanding of how legal and extralegal factors contribute to minority overrepresentation in the French juvenile justice system.

Mots clés: minority, discrimination, disparity, juvenile courts

Domaines: Sociologie; Applications [stat.AP]

Sebastian Roché, Mirta B. Gordon, Marie-Aude Depuiset. Case study: Sentencing violent juvenile offenders in color blind France: does ethnicity matter?. Bucerius, Sandra M. and Tonry, Michael. The Oxford handbook of ethnicity, crime, and immigration, Oxford University Press, pp.834-859, 2014, 9780199859016. ⟨hal-00949350⟩