Proportion of ethnic minority children in custody rises
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The proportion of black and minority ethnic (BME) children in custody is increasing despite an overall fall in custody levels, CYP Now has learned.
However a breakdown of the statistics shows that the rate of decrease is far greater among white young people than black or ethnic minority children.
Between August 2007 and December 2010 the number of white children in custody dropped from 2,175 to 1,215, a decrease of 44.1 per cent.
Among black and ethnic minority children the decrease was 702 to 574, a drop of just 18.2 per cent.
Within this grouping the number of black children in custody fell by 16 per cent, the number of mixed heritage children in custody fell by 44 per cent and the number of Asian children in custody rose by 42 per cent.
John Drew, chief executive of the Youth Justice Board, said the disproportional presence of black and ethnic minority children in the youth justice system is recognised and efforts are being made to address the situation.
"Despite the average number of young people in custody being at the lowest it has been in over a decade, there remains an issue around the disproportionality of some ethic groups," he said. "This is a system-wide problem that requires the attention of many different agencies, but great strides are being made towards addressing this.
"The YJB has helped by improving ethnic monitoring, commissioning and publishing research, and helping youth offending teams consider local causes of disproportionality and access the materials to help prevent it."
