Cumulative Disadvantage in the Criminal Justice System
Lead Research Organisation:
Plymouth University
Department Name: School of Society and Culture
Abstract
Criminal justice punishment is unequally distributed. The UK has the highest rates of imprisonment in Western Europe, where ethnic minority people in prisons make up 27 per cent of prisoners compared to 13 per cent of the general population. Ethnic disproportionality is evidenced across different stages of the Criminal Justice System (CJS). From the point of arrest through prosecution, pretrial detention, sentencing, and imprisonment, people from ethnic minority groups experience persistently worse outcomes than white people.Ethnic disparities are even more pronounced among children. Young black males are three times more likely to be arrested, more likely to be sentenced to custody and spend longer in youth custody compared to than young white males.
While recent government reports have highlighted the persistence of inequalities for ethnic minority groups in the CJS, there is little understanding about the drivers of ethnic disparities. There is limited evidence regarding how cumulative disadvantage produces ethnic disparities in the CJS, particularly in terms of how inequalities accumulate across different stages of the CJS and how specific combinations of factors like age, gender, and ethnicity interact to deepen punishment for some groups.
The project aims to generate new evidence about the role of cumulative disadvantage in understanding ethnic disparities, and the ways inequalities in the CJS build across different decision points and cumulatively from an interaction of individual circumstances and case processing factors. Grounded on cumulative disadvantage and intersectionality theories, it will use an integrated framework of analysis to examine the treatment of ethnic minority groups in the CJS. Taking advantage of cross-justice linked datasets from family courts, criminal courts, Prison and Probation released by the Data First data linking programme led by the Ministry of Justice, and advanced statistical modelling methods, the research will examines cumulative disadvantage as an additive and interactional process which compounds disadvantage for particular groups at different decision points in the CJS and take a life course perspective to track the entire trajectory of a criminal case, from pre-trial detention to post-sentencing outcomes.
The project will contribute towards increased understanding about which groups are subject to cumulative disadvantage at different stages of the CJS, how earlier disadvantage might compound CJS outcomes, and the factors (and their interactions) that are associated with the accumulation of disadvantage.There are potential benefits for policy and public service delivery. Evidence into the causes of ethnic inequalities in the CJS will aid progress towards government equality objectives to deliver improved, evidence-based interventions to achieve better outcomes for ethnic minority groups.
While recent government reports have highlighted the persistence of inequalities for ethnic minority groups in the CJS, there is little understanding about the drivers of ethnic disparities. There is limited evidence regarding how cumulative disadvantage produces ethnic disparities in the CJS, particularly in terms of how inequalities accumulate across different stages of the CJS and how specific combinations of factors like age, gender, and ethnicity interact to deepen punishment for some groups.
The project aims to generate new evidence about the role of cumulative disadvantage in understanding ethnic disparities, and the ways inequalities in the CJS build across different decision points and cumulatively from an interaction of individual circumstances and case processing factors. Grounded on cumulative disadvantage and intersectionality theories, it will use an integrated framework of analysis to examine the treatment of ethnic minority groups in the CJS. Taking advantage of cross-justice linked datasets from family courts, criminal courts, Prison and Probation released by the Data First data linking programme led by the Ministry of Justice, and advanced statistical modelling methods, the research will examines cumulative disadvantage as an additive and interactional process which compounds disadvantage for particular groups at different decision points in the CJS and take a life course perspective to track the entire trajectory of a criminal case, from pre-trial detention to post-sentencing outcomes.
The project will contribute towards increased understanding about which groups are subject to cumulative disadvantage at different stages of the CJS, how earlier disadvantage might compound CJS outcomes, and the factors (and their interactions) that are associated with the accumulation of disadvantage.There are potential benefits for policy and public service delivery. Evidence into the causes of ethnic inequalities in the CJS will aid progress towards government equality objectives to deliver improved, evidence-based interventions to achieve better outcomes for ethnic minority groups.
