Tourism and sentencing: Establishing informal status privileges

This article follows a recent international case where tourism has influenced a criminal trial and its outcome. In order to assess the real impact of this development it draws upon the conceptual frameworks that have informed sentencing to establish best fit with existing theories. Furthermore, it compares this informal development in sentencing with recent legislation in the UK (and more established provision in the United States) designed to outlaw hate crimes. From this it is possible to see that certain countries reliant on tourism are offering tourists what might be termed ‘status privileges’ (a concept borrowed and adapted from the hate crime literature), which serves to distort justice and lays the foundations for a two-tier system that can only lead to inferior protection for indigenous people.