RACE: Home Office reports fewer black offenders but more are stopped

Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2002 aims to help the criminal justice system avoid discrimination.

Of the 262,570 10 to 17-year-old offenders from April 2001 to March 2002, 5.6 per cent were black. This is down on 2000-01, when out of 233,337 young offenders, 5.8 per cent were black.

The proportion of Asian young offenders rose to 3.1 per cent, up on 2.7 per cent. The proportion of white young offenders had also increased to 81.6 per cent, up from 77.9 per cent.

Prison population figures show that the number of 15 to 17-year-olds increased to 2,453 in 2001-02 compared with 1,851 the year before. The number of whites and Asians within this age group increased by one per cent to four per cent, while the number of black prisoners remained at four per cent.