Blame Based on One's Name? Extralegal Disparities in Criminal Conviction and Sentencing.

Abstract

We advance the literature on extralegal disparities in the administration of criminal justice by offering the first analysis of the role of defendant's name. Drawing on uniquely detailed data on adjudication of drug offenses in Belgium, we find that, all else equal, defendants with a perceived Islamic name face on average three to five percentage points greater prospects of conviction than defendants with a Belgian name. The name effect is not discernible with respect to sentence severity; does not apply to defendants with a non-Islamic foreign name; does not take place via defendant's pretrial custody status; affects primarily male defendants; and magnifies the effect of prior criminal record. The presiding judge's exposure to Islamic culture is an important moderating factor: all else equal, the positive effect of defendant's perceived Islamic name on conviction prospects occurs only when the presiding judge lives in an area with few mosques or when the nearest mosque is far from the judge's home.