How much time? Indigenous status and the sentenced imprisonment term decision in New South Wales
Author(s)
Bond, Christine
Jeffries, Samantha
Weatherburn, Don
Year published
2011
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Using administrative data from the higher and lower courts of New South Wales, this study examines whether Indigeneity: (a) exerts a direct effect on length of imprisonment term once other relevant sentencing variables are taken into account; (b) interacts with other relevant sentencing variables to influence prison length. Results show that being Indigenous significantly reduces the length of sentenced prison term in the lower courts but has no significant effect at the higher court level. Further, evidence of interactive effects by Indigenous status was scant. Only age differed significantly between Indigenous and ...
View more >Using administrative data from the higher and lower courts of New South Wales, this study examines whether Indigeneity: (a) exerts a direct effect on length of imprisonment term once other relevant sentencing variables are taken into account; (b) interacts with other relevant sentencing variables to influence prison length. Results show that being Indigenous significantly reduces the length of sentenced prison term in the lower courts but has no significant effect at the higher court level. Further, evidence of interactive effects by Indigenous status was scant. Only age differed significantly between Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders at both court levels. In this case age had no effect on the length of sentence imposed on Indigenous defendants in the lower courts or higher courts but increased sentence length for non-Indigenous offenders at both court levels.
View less >
View more >Using administrative data from the higher and lower courts of New South Wales, this study examines whether Indigeneity: (a) exerts a direct effect on length of imprisonment term once other relevant sentencing variables are taken into account; (b) interacts with other relevant sentencing variables to influence prison length. Results show that being Indigenous significantly reduces the length of sentenced prison term in the lower courts but has no significant effect at the higher court level. Further, evidence of interactive effects by Indigenous status was scant. Only age differed significantly between Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders at both court levels. In this case age had no effect on the length of sentence imposed on Indigenous defendants in the lower courts or higher courts but increased sentence length for non-Indigenous offenders at both court levels.
View less >
Journal Title
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology
Volume
44
Issue
2
Subject
Courts and Sentencing
Criminology
Psychology
Law