Ethnicity definitely plays a role in the Dutch criminal justice system, study finds
Ethnicity definitely plays a role in the Dutch criminal justice system, according to new research by the Ministry of Justice’s Scientific Research and Data Center (WODC). People from ethnic minorities are overrepresented in juvenile and adult prisons. And the figures can’t be fully explained by differences in socio-economic status and the type of crime people are suspected of, NOS reports.
The researchers investigated how suspects progress through the criminal process, taking account of factors like type of crime, previous contact with the authorities, education level, and household income. They found that the proportion of people from ethnic minorities increases at every step in the judicial system.
For example, according to police figures, 46 percent of minor suspects have an ethnicity other than Dutch-only. In cases forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), 49 percent of minor suspects are from ethnic minorities. In the cases brought to court, it is 56 percent, and in juvenile detention, it is 67 percent. For adults, the proportion of suspects from ethnic minorities increases from 45 percent at the police level to 55 percent sentenced to prison.
By linking data from Statistics Netheraldns (CBS), the police, the OM, and the courts, the researchers concluded that teenagers born in the Netherlands with immigration somewhere in their family tree have a 22 to 28 percent higher chance of ending up in juvenile detention for comparable offences compared to young people with a Dutch-only background. For adults, the chance of prison is 13 to 28 percent higher among people from minority groups.
The differences can be partly explained. People from minority groups are relatively more often suspected of crimes that are more likely to end in a prison sentence. There is also a higher average number of charges against people from minority groups. On the socio-economic scale, people with an immigration background are more likely to be in vulnerable positions with lower education levels.
But these factors do not explain all the differences, and that indicates ethnic selectivity in the criminal justice system, the researchers said. The origin of a suspect influences the outcomes of the criminal proceedings against them. “This may indicate conscious or unconscious discrimination, which goes against the principle of the rule of law, in which everyone has an equal chance of fair treatment,” the researchers said.
They added that ethnic selectivity is not automatically the result of racism. Previous research showed that, for example, a suspect’s attitude during the trial can influence the outcome. Highly educated suspects are more likely to behave as the court would like. In that study, judges also said that they sometimes impose prison instead of community service if a suspect lacked a permanent residence or did not speak Dutch well.
The researchers recommended establishing a “judicial equality monitor” to periodically check how different groups of people progress through the criminal justice system.
This study was commissioned by former Minister Ferdinand Grapperhause of Justice and Security in 2021, after it emerged that Dutch prisons contain relatively more people with a non-Dutch background than would be expected based on police figures.
