Non-Irish receive longer jail terms for drugs
An analysis of a year’s worth of committals shows while foreign nationals are under-represented in some crime categories, they are significantly over-represented in others.
According to the report, conducted by academics at University College Dublin, “these findings suggest that bias is occurring within the criminal justice system and warrants further examination”.
An initial dataset comprising all cases that resulted in imprisonment from a consecutive 12-month period between 2015 and 2017 was provided by the Irish Prison Service, with details on nationality, age, offence, resulting custodial sentence range, and whether the prisoner had previously received a custodial sentence.
Offences with mandatory sentences, such as homicide and certain sexual offences, were removed, resulting in 35 independent offence categories comprising 11,158 cases, of which 9,949 involved an offender of Irish nationality and 1,209 involved an offender of non-Irish nationality.
Overall, foreign nationals comprised 10.84% of the committals and, according to the analysis, this group was significantly under-represented in the offence categories of attempted robbery, vehicle theft, criminal damage, robbery, parking fine offences, assault causing harm, intoxication in a public place, threatening behaviour in a public place, unlawful possession of drugs, and no television licence.
They were statistically significantly over-represented in the offence categories of driving under the influence, no vehicle insurance, theft, and possession of drugs for sale/supply (to the value of less than €13,000).
According to the research: “Statistically significant sentencing disparities were observed in six categories: Assault; no road tax; estreatment of bail; using a vehicle without an NCT ([national car test] certificate; failure to comply with a garda; and possession of drugs for sale/supply [to the value of under €13,000].
“Irish nationals were found to have received statistically significantly longer sentences for the offences assault and no road tax.”
Foreign nationals were found to have received statistically significantly longer sentences for the offences of estreatment of bail, using a vehicle without an NCT certificate, failure to comply with a garda, and possession of drugs for sale/supply (to the value of €13,000).
Researchers Avril Brandon and Michael O’Connell then looked at the sentences by gender.
In the male-only sample (12.07% of total), the disparities between Irish and non-Irish males for possession of drugs for sale/supply (to the value of under €13,000) were “substantial”, whereby non-Irish males received on average 10.78 months longer than Irish males.
The study says its findings “suggest that bias is occurring within the criminal justice system and warrants further examination’.
“When faced with structural disadvantages, are non-Irish nationals simply committing some crimes more frequently than their Irish national counterparts?
“Are the sentences reflective of a greater perceived risk of recidivism, perhaps due to less social support on release? Or are they over- policed, as alleged by some minorities?”
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