The Home Affairs Select Committee last Friday released its report on the over-representation of black young people in the criminal justice system. Black people make up 2.7 per cent of all 10- to 17-year-olds, but represent 8.5 per cent of that age group arrested in England and Wales. They are also more likely to be victims of violent crimes.
The report identifies the key cause to be social exclusion: 80 per cent of black communities live in Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas - in other words, England's most deprived authorities. Then there are more specific cultural risk factors: lack of father figures, vulnerability to peer pressure and gang culture, and the glamorisation of criminal lifestyles in rap and hip-hop.
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