Disparities in Criminal Justice Decision-Making

Confidence in the justice system relies on it being both impartial and being seen to be impartial. It is therefore troubling that there are well-documented disparities between men and women and between ethnic groups at various stages of the criminal justice process. We report statistical analysis of existing data to (1) better understand the existing disparities, (2) investigate what information is available that might be useful in drawing a distinction between causation (discrimination) and association, (3) consider what statistical tools could be used to quantitatively investigate these relationships. Two datasets were investigated, looking at two different ends of the justice system. The first dataset describes the Metropolitan Police Force’s stop and search practices, an entry point into the criminal justice system. The second dataset describes sentencing, the final stage of that system, focusing on shoplifting offences dealt with by a sample of magistrates' courts.