JSB173 Final: JSB173 Week 7 Exam Revision.docx

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Research has also shown that indigenous people are over-represented in the courts and compared to non-indigenous people usually receive harsher sentences. At first glance, one might say the criminal justice system is sexist, racist or biased because of these sentencing and treatment disparities. However, it is easy to forget that other issues such as social, economical etc. may be at play here and contribute towards the overall disparities. Criminologists have put forwards three possible hypotheses to explain the differences in this court data: differential involvement, negative discrimination, positive discrimination. Existing differences in other relevant factors which may influence sentencing and contact with the system, for example the over-representation of indigenous peoples could instead be due to their higher rate of committing serious crimes. In this case, there would be no discrimination on behalf of the court because other relevant legal factors have influenced the decision.