Indicator history

The study A Criminalidade de Estrangeiros em Portugal: um estudo científico [The Criminality of Foreigners in Portugal: A Scientific Survey], dated from 2005 and the one that followed it in 2006 Reclusos Estrangeiros em Portugal: esteios de uma problematização [Foreign Prisoners in Portugal – An initial analysis], concluded that “in comparing the development of foreigners and Portuguese in penal cases of the first instance during the years 1997 to 2003 there is in fact an overrepresentation of the formers in all stages of the process (defendants, sentences, and sentenced to a term in prison).”

“It is possible to state that, in terms of restraint, custodial detention in prison is applied much more to foreigners than to Portuguese. Three reasons can be ascribed to this fact. Firstly, it is explicitly stated in the Penal Code that any suspect of a crime who is a foreign national who is in an irregular situation in the country should be held in custodial detention in prison, even if the level of crime does not warrant the force usually required by law. In the second place, there could be a greater involvement of foreigners in crimes with criminal sentences greater than three years which, added to the danger of flight, may lead to this type of decision. What is not explained by the previously given reasons can be interpreted as the existence of some kind of prejudice within the judicial machine that tends to penalise non-nationals more severely.”

“Through calculating the rates of guilty sentences, it is also the case here that foreigners have a greater probability of being found guilty than Portuguese. Here, besides the type of crime carried out and the possible prejudice of agents within the judicial system, a new factor comes into play: the weak quality of the officially provided legal defence. In analysing the sentences awarded following a conviction, we can verify that foreigners are more frequently sentenced to prison. […] We also verified that of the prison sentences given to foreigners, longer sentences predominate and that, with a notable frequency, the average length of prison terms awarded for the same type of crime are greater for foreigners.”

Almost identical conclusions were presented in the study Percursos Estrangeiros no Sistema de Justiça Penal [Foreign Pathways on Penal Justice System] dated from 2010. Here it is said that “discrimination is part of the explanation for the overrepresentation of foreigner residents in Portuguese detention system, although not being sufficient to explain the all magnitude of it.”