Ana Veiga

Research interests

My PhD research focuses on racial and ethnic disparities in the sentencing of child offenders. There has been a 73% decrease in the youth custody population between 2007 and 2020, however, during this same time the percentage of Black and minority ethnic incarcerated children has increased from 27% in 2007 to 51% in 2020 (Ministry of Justice Statistics, 2021). Bias in the different Youth Justice processes, such as sentencing, can be one of the causes of these increased disparities. This thesis sets out to identify the factors that result in sentencing disparities for Black and minority ethnic children and will examine if unwarranted disparities continue to exist after controlling for relevant factors. The thesis will be using a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with different Youth Justice practitioners, such as barristers and magistrates, with quantitative analysis. Using a mixed-methods approach will allow me to better examine the issue of disparities in the sentencing of children; interviews will help identify the omitted relevant variables that influence sentencing and the underlying mechanisms that result in disparities. My methodology will go beyond the current sentencing studies, which at best control for only a few legal factors, and which focus exclusively on quantitative analyses when examining disparities and discrimination in sentencing.

My research interests are sentencing, policing, the prison system, the Youth Justice System and race, crime, socio-economic issues and the Criminal Justice System. 

Qualifications

• MPhil Criminological Research (Cambridge University, 2020)
• LLB Politics, Philosophy and Law (King's College London, 2019)

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Criminal Justice Studies