Non-white children more likely to face custody for knife possession

Statistics analysed by CYP Now show that in the 15 months between July 2014 and September 2015 a total of 2,236 white juveniles were sentenced or cautioned for knife possession, with 196 of them receiving a custodial sentence - a custody rate of 8.8 per cent.

During the same period a total of 1,471 non-white juveniles were sentenced or cautioned for knife possession with 183 of them receiving a custodial sentence - a custody rate of 12.4 per cent.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the charity has been raising the issue of disproportionality of sentencing with youth court magistrates.

She said the proportion of black and ethnic minority children remanded and sentenced to custody is "staggering".

"We are disappointed that the Magistrates Association appears to be ignoring its leadership role in confronting this," she added.

"More than 90 per cent of magistrates are white, and there needs to be a more robust approach to training and to monitoring their decisions."

Malcolm Richardson, chair of the Magistrates Association, said: "We're proud of the fact magistrates are the most diverse part of the judiciary, and there is no evidence that diversity influences sentencing patterns. This analysis thus far doesn't go deep enough to understand the issue and also doesn't demonstrate sentencing is the problem.
 
"However, as a national charity we discuss these issues with the statutory bodies that set sentencing policy and train magistrates on an ongoing basis. Having met with the Howard League and explained this to them we're surprised that they are misrepresenting our work in this area."

Latest custody figures show that there are a disproportionate number of black, Asian and ethnic minority children in youth custody. As of November 2015 a total of 405 were in custody representing 40.1 per cent of the total.

The situation in youth custody has got progressively worse in recent years. A decade ago, in November 2005, 728 of the total youth custody population of 2,893 were non-white - representing 25.2 per cent of the total.

The 2011 Census found that only 14 per cent of the overall population of England and Wales is non-white.

The Youth Justice Board has previously said it is working in partnership with public, private and voluntary and community sector organisations to implement a three-year programme designed to reduce the disproportional impact of the criminal justice system upon certain ethnic and disadvantaged young people.