Testing the Interrelationship between Area Deprivation and Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing

In the examination of sentencing disparities, hypotheses related to social class have been relatively overlooked compared to explanations centred on offenders' ethnicity. This oversight is regrettable as these factors often intertwine, particularly given the prevalence of socioeconomic deprivation among ethnic minorities compared to the White majority. In this study, we investigate the mediating and moderating effects between offenders' residential area deprivation and their ethnic background using an administrative dataset encompassing all offences processed through the England and Wales Crown Court. Our findings reveal the following: i) substantial ethnic disparities among drug offenders, but mostly non-existent across other offence categories; ii) area deprivation does not explain away ethnic disparities, but pronounced area disparities are found for breach and assault offences, wherein offenders living in deprived areas are penalised compared to their more affluent counterparts; and iii) ethnicity and area deprivation interact, but only for breach offences, with ethnic minority offenders being treated more harshly than white offenders when residing in deprived areas but favoured when they live in affluent areas.