ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the social psychological literature on ethnicity- and gender-based prejudice and discrimination in the legal system. The review begins with an overview of the international research on ethnic and racial discrimination, focusing on the mechanisms behind these biases and the conditions during which they occur. The chapter draws on findings from the Nordic and in particular from the Swedish context. It also reviews on ethnocentric biases, and presents a research on gender discrimination in judicial proceedings. The chapter discusses the concept prejudice to denote a negative attitude towards specific social groups and their members, and discrimination as a term for the negative treatment of an individual based on prejudice towards the individual's social group. In Sweden, a defendant who is convicted but not yet sentenced, and suspected of having committed the crime while affected by mental disorder, can be referred by the court to a forensic psychiatric evaluation.
