Justice by privilege? Social inequality in waivers of prosecution among youth.

Abstract

While equality before the law is a fundamental democratic principle, some disparities in justice delivery are intentional. For example, the sentencing of young offenders has long been the subject of special consideration in the Swedish criminal justice system. This study investigates social inequality based on socioeconomic status in Swedish youths´ access to a waiver of prosecution before and after a youth justice reform, which, among other things, aimed to increase waivers of prosecution. It further explores how socioeconomic status, gender and ethnic background interact and how this relates to youths' chances of being processed with minimal intervention. Findings demonstrate that youths with highly educated parents are more likely to have their cases diverted from a sanction. Still, inequality only appeared after the 2007 youth justice reform. While diversion away from penal sanctions increased for all youths after the reform, the increase was more substantial for youths whose parents had higher levels of education. This suggests that justice-response disparities arose as a knock-on effect of the youth policy reform. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the influence of parental socioeconomic status is more substantial for girls and youths with Western backgrounds. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of sentencing decisions, intersectionality and a resource perspective.