THESIS
2019
Abstract
Sentencing disparity is an underexplored issue in civil law countries and
developing countries. Using rich data from 3 million court verdicts in China, we
show that criminals from the minorities on average receive sentences that are 3.1
percent longer than those of comparable Han criminals. The disparity is estimated
within narrowly defined crime cells and is robust to the inclusion of a rich set of
control variables. We also find that the ethnic disparity is greater in western
provinces, in regions with lower GDP per capita, and in provinces with larger
minority population. Certain minority groups face larger sentence penalty than
others. Greater ethnic disparities are observed in more severe crimes. We then
investigate how China’s recent sentence guideline reform affects the...[
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Sentencing disparity is an underexplored issue in civil law countries and
developing countries. Using rich data from 3 million court verdicts in China, we
show that criminals from the minorities on average receive sentences that are 3.1
percent longer than those of comparable Han criminals. The disparity is estimated
within narrowly defined crime cells and is robust to the inclusion of a rich set of
control variables. We also find that the ethnic disparity is greater in western
provinces, in regions with lower GDP per capita, and in provinces with larger
minority population. Certain minority groups face larger sentence penalty than
others. Greater ethnic disparities are observed in more severe crimes. We then
investigate how China’s recent sentence guideline reform affects the observed
ethnic disparity. Using a difference-of-differences model, we find that the reform
effectively eliminates the sentence disparity between Han and minorities. A back
of envelope calculation indicates that the reform leads to an annual income gain
of more than 62 million dollars for criminals of minorities.
Keywords: ethnicity disparity, criminal sentence, sentencing guideline reform
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