One in three children in care enter youth justice system, study finds

Amrit Virdi
Monday, September 25, 2023

Children who have been in care are more likely to be involved with the youth justice system, a new study has found.

Researchers are calling for duties on local authorities to prevent criminalisation of children in the care system. Picture: Adobe Stock/ Motortion.

The study from Manchester Metropolitan University and Lancaster University surveyed 2.3 million children born between 1996 and 1999. It found that one in three of those with experience of the care system received a criminal caution or conviction when aged between 10 to 17 compared with four per cent of those who were not in care.

Findings also revealed that custodial sentences were almost twice as common among black and mixed ethnicity children compared with white children who had been in the care system.

Researchers have outlined a series of policy recommendations based on the findings, including:

Making linked data from the Ministry of Justice and other government departments more available
Using detailed ethnicity categories for publishing data
Imposing a statutory duty on local authorities to prevent unnecessary criminalisation of children in care and care leavers
Making youth justice agencies more aware of who has been in care to improve support.

“It reveals what individuals working in the field have long suspected - that racially minoritised care-experienced children are especially vulnerable to youth justice involvement and imprisonment,” said lead author of the study and criminology lecturer Dr Katie Hunter.

“Clearly, we need urgent action from government to prevent the unnecessary criminalisation of children in care and care leavers which takes account of the specific needs of minoritised groups. We also need to keep in mind that youth justice involvement among children who’ve been in care is not an inevitability. We must avoid stigmatising these children - this is about over-criminalisation and system failures.”

Researchers have also worked with charity Barnardo's to further examine the impact of race on the treatment of children in care.

Its Double Discrimination report highlights examples of racism, wider forms of discrimination, exclusion, and isolation experienced by young black people in residential settings, foster care placements, education, mental health provision and prison. These include being ignored when reporting racial abuse, care staff involving the police as a tool of discipline in non-criminal matters.

The report includes interviews with 22 young black care-experienced people aged 18 to 25 who are currently serving custodial sentences in England.

The young people report irregular support from professionals with 15 of the 22 young people saying they receive inconsistent support from their social workers while just four have been offered or accessed mental health support.

One young person said: “Within the three years I’ve had about five different social workers, whether they’ve left, whether they’ve quit the job, gone to do something in a new department, and right now I’ve even got someone new that I’ve only known for like a month. It’s just like I don’t feel comfortable talking to him, because like you’re just going to [go] one day, and I’m just going to do all this all over again."

All but two of the young people interviewed disclosed experiences of racism or differential treatment based on their race and ethnicity.

Barnardo’s is recommending changes to better support young people throughout their lives, including the introduction of a Black Foster Care Network, access to timely mental health support, and full implementation of the Lammy Review to reduce the over-criminalisation of children in the care system.