Criminal records system 'undermining' youth justice reforms, campaigners claim
Derren Hayes
Monday, September 7, 2020
A coalition of youth justice organisations has called for a wide-ranging review of the criminal records system to support youth justice reforms.
The Standing Committee for Youth Justice (SCYJ), a national alliance of 60 charities and youth organisations, said welcome developments in youth justice are being undermined by the current childhood criminal records system.
In particular, the committee highlighted plans set out by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to develop a ‘child first’ approach to its work, tackle disproportionality throughout the youth justice system and improve links between custody and resettlement.
The SCYJ warns that until the criminal record system is reformed, “the YJB’s goals will be hard to achieve”.
It has published a briefing outlining how the current criminal record system acts a barrier to the priorities the YJB has set.
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The criminal records systems in England and Wales allow widespread, lengthy disclosure of childhood records, which the SCYJ said “anchors” young people to their past. This “entrenches a child’s criminal identity and impedes progress at pivotal opportunities to move away from crime, particularly when trying to advance in education, obtain housing, or employment” it adds.
The committee is particularly concerned about the added burden that criminal records bring to the livelihoods of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) young people who already experience multiple discriminations that can affect their access to education, employment, housing, and healthcare.
It also concerned about the criminalisation of children who are victims of exploitation, many of whom receive criminal records for behaviour that is a direct result of exploitation, or a response to the trauma that violence brings with it.
The SCYJ argues that not only is society failing to protect these children from the harms of exploitation, they are then punished further by a justice system that fails to recognise them as victims, and by the long-term consequences of criminal records.
Pippa Goodfellow, SCYJ director, said: “Criminal records in their current form actively impede all attempts to encourage young people to move on from past mistakes and reach their full potential.
“Criminal records continue to entrench racial disparity and disadvantage, which the government has committed to address – a comprehensive review of the system has transformative potential as a vital tool in addressing these issues.
“The criminal records system also fails to recognise child development, or the complex factors that lead to a child becoming entangled with the law, often as a result of being victims of crime or being exploited themselves.”
Goodfellow added that while the committee welcomed the government’s recent announcement that it will amend the criminal record system to remove disclosure of youth cautions, but warned these “tweaks of the system will not go far enough”.
Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, a charity that supports people with convictions, said the current criminal records disclosure regime works against the rehabilitation of children.
“The stigma and exclusion caused by a criminal record can make it harder to move away from serious youth violence,” he explained. “Those who acquire a criminal record as a child or young adult can find themselves affected in multiple ways and for a very long time, often for the rest of their lives.
“From employment, volunteering and training or studying, to travelling abroad and buying home insurance, a criminal record represents a significant barrier to the ability to move on. It drags people down, even decades later.
“As part of the #FairChecks movement, we’re calling for a major review of the legislation on the disclosure of criminal records. This must include specific consideration of the treatment of records obtained for offences committed in childhood, including the possibility of sealing some records.”
In February, campaigners highlighted the government's failure to act on a Supreme Court ruling in 2019 that existing rules on disclosing cautions were unlawful.