Nationality, crime, and criminal justice in France

Except for some prison statistics, official data in France distinguish only between French citizens and ''foreigners.'' Foreigners are overrepresented among persons suspected of offending and among those admitted to and held in prison. Disparities are greatest among pretrial detainees whose cases are dealt with summarily. A sizable proportion of foreigners' offenses involve immigration; when these are deleted from the data, disparities are considerably lower. In addition, disparities would be lower still if it were possible to adjust the data to exclude all offenses by nonresident foreigners. Because this is not possible, all ratios of disproportion are overstated. Little research has been done to test discrimination hypotheses, and it is accordingly difficult to reach firm conclusions on the degree to which bias or xenophobia cause or increase disproportions.