People of Māori descent account for just a fifth of Aotearoa’s population, but are overrepresented at every stage of the criminal justice system. They comprise 37% of people prosecuted by police, 45% of those convicted and 52% of the prison population.

Such statistics, however, aren’t easily explained. Differences in offending type only go so far – for instance, a minor assault charge can involve varying impacts on victims – and for most offences there is no objective measure of severity. This makes it difficult to compare people charged with what appears to be the same crime.

Recent analysis from the Understanding Policing Delivery programme has already shown systemic bias at the policing stage: when all other factors are held constant, Māori were 11% more likely to be prosecuted than Pākehā.

What has been less clear is whether similar disparities occur within the courtroom. In our newly published study, we examined whether sentencing outcomes differ between Māori and New Zealand Europeans charged with nearly identical offences.

We focused on first-time drink-driving cases, using alcohol........

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