Judges’ characteristics and sentencing in Hong Kong

Abstract

The influence of judges’ characteristics on sentencing remains an understudied area particularly in Asian contexts. Previous studies typically focus on the effects of judges’ demographic characteristics in the context of the United States. This study extends the literature by investigating the effects of demographic characteristics, including similarity of the judges with defendants in terms of demographic characteristics and judges’ previous experience on sentence outcomes in Hong Kong. Data are drawn from the Hong Kong Judiciary’s Reason for Sentence, imported into an original coded data set of judgments. The results show that older judges render more severe sentences in general while also being more lenient toward older defendants. In addition, a judge’s education and prior working experience are significant on sentence length, such that, judges with education abroad are more likely to be harsher than those educated locally, whereas judges who were former prosecutors are more lenient in their sentencing than defense lawyers.