Students are often treated leniently by judges, researchers say

Students receive lighter sentences from judges than other suspects. They are less often sent to prison and receive lower fines than someone who is not in education.

The lower your social position, the harsher your sentence, investigative journalists De Groene Amsterdammer and Investico concluded about the Dutch justice system. “The Public Prosecution Service prosecutes more often, the judge convicts you more often and you are more often sent to prison”, they wrote two years ago.

The WODC, an independent research institute of the Ministry of Justice and Security, analysed 2.5 million court cases and has reached a similar conclusion: people with lower levels of education receive harsher sentences than those with a higher professional (hbo) or university (wo) degree.

In education

Particularly notable are the figures for adults who ‘are enrolled in education’. These can be students in higher education, but also people taking an evening course, says Sunil Choenni, the chief science officer of the WODC and lector at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.

For the same offences the ‘total sanctions package’ for students is on average 54 percent lighter than for people without work or education. They receive lower fines and are less often sent to prison.

The WODC also looked at other factors, such as living situation, position in the labour market (employed or receiving benefits) and income. Suspects with a stronger socioeconomic position appear before a judge less often because they more frequently reach a settlement with the Public Prosecution Service. For that reason alone their sentences are less severe, since only a judge can impose a custodial sentence.

Migration background

The WODC also examined the migration background of suspects. That has less impact on sentencing than income, level of education or living situation. The researchers note that they only looked at formal ‘suspects’. They may be stopped by the police more often, but the study does not address that.

Sometimes it is understandable that students receive lower sentences, explains Sunil Choenni. After a sentence someone also has to return to society. “By imprisoning someone, they can’t attend lectures, whereas an education can help get someone’s life back on track. Perhaps for that reason students more often receive a different penalty, for example community service combined with a fine, instead of a custodial sentence.”

But Choenni does not think all the differences can be readily explained. “Perhaps the highly educated understand the system better, or can communicate more effectively with the judge during the handling of a case. Or they know better how to express remorse. But the question is whether that should count towards sentencing.”

Support

The report warns that structurally harsher sentences for the less educated could, in the long term, ‘undermine trust in the rule of law and the sense of justice’. According to Choenni there are already people who feel they’re not being measured by the same standard as others. “We need to find out why that is and what we can do about it, because otherwise it’ll cost us public support.”

The trigger for De Groene Amsterdammer and Investico‘s investigation into class justice was the case of the Belgian student Sanda Dia, who died during his hazing. The responsible association members were given community service. The journalists wondered how things were in the Netherlands.

The WODC proposes keeping better statistics on the socioeconomic position of suspects so that judges and others involved can take this into account. A separate report sets out what the Ministry of Justice and Security can do, such as training judges to recognise their biases.