Police figures reveal disproportionate arrests of BAME children in London
Joe Lepper
Monday, November 27, 2017
Six out of 10 children and young people arrested in London are from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, accordingly to latest analysis by criminal justice campaigners.
The Howard League for Penal Reform has collected data from police forces across England and Wales and found that BAME children accounted for 60 per cent of all child arrests by the Metropolitan Police in 2016, compared with 26 per cent of all child arrests across England and Wales.
The areas with the next highest proportion during the same year are Bedfordshire, where the figure is 42 per cent, and the West Midlands, where the figure is 41 per cent.
Meanwhile, the police forces with the lowest proportions are Cumbria and Durham (both two per cent), Cleveland and Norfolk (both three per cent) and Northumbria (four per cent).
The Howard League has compiled the figures, relating to 10- to 17-year-olds, in response to David Lammy's review of the treatment of ethnic minority groups in the justice system.
The Labour MP's review called on criminal justice organisations to be able to "explain or reform" disproportionate representation of BAME people.
"The disproportionate number of BAME children being brought into the system is of great concern," said Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League.
"It raises serious questions about decision making throughout the criminal justice journey - from the police's decision to arrest, to the remand and sentencing decisions of the youth courts."
"The Lammy Review has called on police forces and other criminal justice agencies to either explain disparities or reform. Our analysis of child arrests data is intended to assist this discussion."
The figures also show a marked fall in the number of children arrested in recent years, from 250,000 in 2010 to 88,000 in 2016.
Reducing the number of children in the criminal justice system has been a key campaign for the Howard League.
"Working together with the police, we have ensured that tens of thousands of children will have a brighter future and not be dragged into a downward spiral of crime and custody," Crook added.
Earlier this week, HM Inspectorate of Prison's revealed that BAME young people continue to be disproportionately prevalent in the youth secure estate.
Its 2016/17 children in custody report found that 49 per cent of those in secure training centres and 48 per cent in young offender institutions are from BAME backgrounds.
In September a Ministry of Justice study found that young black boys are 1.23 times more likely to be sentenced to custody by magistrates than their white peers.
