Ethnicity, Socio-Economic Status, and Juvenile Sanctions: Assessing Cumulative Disadvantage in Dutch Criminal Justice

Sanctioning disparities is a prominent area of research in criminal justice. Yet, previous studies often only looked at either ethnicity or socio-economic status, and were typically focused on a single stage of the justice chain. This paper investigates the role of ethnic and socio-economic background in sanctioning disparities for juvenile offenders in the Dutch criminal justice system. We estimate the sanctioning disparities of youth during all stages of the criminal justice chain, police - public prosecution - courts. We utilize rich and unique administrative data of the Netherlands on crime and different personal characteristics of youth aged 12-17 who committed one crime during 2010 - 2020. By investigating whether the impact of having a minority status increases over the different stages of the juvenile system, we test the cumulative disadvantage hypothesis that disparities accumulate through the system. In support of this hypothesis, preliminary results indicate that minority youth have an increasing probability to proceed in the criminal justice chain and to receive harsher punishment compared to natives.