Samenvatting

Thousands of people are fined every year. However, for individuals with financial problems, a fine may be more severe than for those with sufficient financial capacity. When imposing a fine, a judge should therefore take into account the financial capacity of an accused person. To date, however, there are hardly any insights into the financial situation during sentencing and it is unknown to what extent people with more and less financial capacity receive other sentences. In this study, the financial situation of convicted persons is mapped out on the basis of administrative data. The results show that debt problems among accused persons are common and that people with less financial capacity receive different sentences than people with more financial capacity.