Podcast with Kyra Hanemaaijer: Inequality in the legal system

The judiciary must act without prejudices or preferences, but with equal treatment of everyone. But how fair is the Dutch legal system? Hanemaaijer investigated the extent to which the Dutch legal system is sensitive to external events. On average, suspects with a (Moroccan) migration background received much longer prison sentences after the murder of Derk Wiersum (lawyer of the key witness in the Marengo trial of drug criminal Ridouan Taghi) in 2019, which greatly increased the visibility of and attention for (Moroccan) migration background in a negative way. 

The working paper will soon be published under the name "Minority Salience and Criminal Justice Decisions" and will be available on Hanemaaijer’s website. 

Listen to the (Dutch spoken) episode via ESB, Spotify, Apple, or other podcast apps:
Listen on the website of ESB
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts

About Kyra Hanemaaijer

Kyra Hanemaaijer is a fifth year PhD candidate in Economics at Erasmus School of Economics and Tinbergen Institute under the supervision of Professor Olivier Marie (Erasmus School of Economics) and Associate Professor Nadine Ketel (VU Amsterdam). She holds a Research Qualification from the Tinbergen Institute, a Master’s degree in Economics from Erasmus School of Economics, and a Master of Laws degree from Erasmus School of Law. Her main research interests include the economics of crime, education, discrimination, and labour economics. In her PhD thesis, she focuses on the causes and mechanisms behind unfavourable socioeconomic outcomes. Click here for more information on her research.