Diamond doesn't know the exact circumstances of the White young man's arrest, but he is pretty sure White people are treated differently from Black people. It could be a question of perception, but figures from the Youth Justice Board seem to back up his theory (see box below).
The statistics reveal an imbalance in the way the criminal justice system handles people from different ethnic backgrounds, but not why such a discrepancy exists.
The kneejerk reaction is to talk about institutional racism in the police and discrimination against ethnic minorities in general, but although this is undoubtedly a factor, it is not the first thing that most people who work with Black young men say when asked about their treatment.
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