Sentencing disparities in the Czech Republic: Empirical evidence from post-communist Europe
Although there is an extensive literature on sentencing disparities in common law countries, there have been only a few empirical studies in continental countries and virtually none in post-communist ones. This article presents findings from the Czech Republic, which show that there are important di...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| In: |
European journal of criminology
Year: 2020, Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 151-174 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | Although there is an extensive literature on sentencing disparities in common law countries, there have been only a few empirical studies in continental countries and virtually none in post-communist ones. This article presents findings from the Czech Republic, which show that there are important disparities in post-communist Europe, comparable to those in the USA before the introduction of sentencing guidelines. I employ a multi-level modelling approach to study the sentencing practices in Czech district courts for the three most common offences. The values of intra-cluster correlation are found to be between .066 and .178 for the various models, which is considered high. The specifics of civil law post-communist countries are further discussed in relation to choosing appropriate ways of reducing disparities. |
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| ISSN: | 1741-2609 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/1477370818773612 |