YOUNG OFFENDERS
Black and ethnic minority boys and young men are three times more likely to end up in the youth justice system than white boys
BOYS of an ethnic minority are nearly three times as likely to end up in the criminal justice system as boys who are white.
People who are black, Asian, or of an other ethnicity account for 11 per cent of the under-18 population in England and Wales.
In the youth criminal justice system, however, they make up 47 per cent of offenders in custody.
That means one in every 3,467 nonwhite boys in England and Wales were incarcerated as of September this year.
By comparison, only one in every 11,507 white boys was behind bars.
The rate means that boys of an ethnic minority are nearly three times as likely to end up in youth custody.
Both white and ethnic girls are less likely than boys to end up in the youth justice system - representing a combined total of three per cent of young people in custody in September this year.
The findings come a year on from the Lammy review.
The September 2017 report contained 35 recommendations to tackle ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system.
It found that disproportionality in the youth justice system was of particular concern and that if unaddressed, it could mean that the young people currently in custody will become the next generation of adult offenders.
The government agreed to the principle of “explain or change” when responding to the review - meaning that steps must be taken if an explanation could not be found for the racial discrepancy.
It has since set up a new dedicated youth disproportionality team, and issued new guidance on recruitment.
However, 15 months on from the initial report the statistics show little sign of progress.
In fact, boys of an ethnic minority now make up a higher proportion of the youth custody population than they did a year ago - 47 per cent compared to 45 per cent.
Jabeer Butt, CEO of the Race Equality Foundation said: “What has been obvious for some time, is that the failure to ensure that specific steps are taken to address disproportionality would mean that black and minority ethnic children would become an even bigger proportion of those in the secure estate.
“The silence on how much money, if any, is to go to support the actions set out in the [Youth Justice Board’s] 2018 business plan should ring alarm bells.
“Beyond this we have all welcomed the focus on early intervention to reduce offending. But we also know that some of the deepest cuts in funding since 2010 have been experienced in children services, combined with disproportionate cuts in areas such as London where the majority of black and minority ethnic children live.” Edward Argar, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, recently said: “We are committed to tackling the overrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic children in the youth justice system.
”In building on the Lammy Review, we are taking a broader view of how we can tackle the systemic causes of disproportionality across the system and engaging with key stakeholders, including other government departments, to develop proposals for intervention.”