The State of Youth Justice 2020

The State of Youth Justice 2020

Report by: Dr Tim Bateman on behalf of the National Association for Youth Justice (August 2020)

Theme 1
Race and criminalisation

Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) children, viewed as a single group, are over-represented in the youth justice system: 27 per cent of children cautioned or convicted in 2019 were of BAME origin, compared with 18 per cent in the general population. Over the past decade this proportion has nearly doubled, rising from 14 per cent in 2010 (Ministry of Justice/Youth Justice Board). The term BAME is commonly used in policy and published data but can elide a broad range of difference and does not reflect the diverse range of experiences of specific “minority ethnic” groups. Relative to the composition of the wider 10-17 population, Asian children have been consistently under-represented among those receiving a substantive youth justice disposal. By contrast, 2.8 times as many black children come to the attention of the youth justice system as would be expected, given the composition of the general population within the relevant age range, and the extent of over-representation for this group has risen substantially since 2010. The representation of mixed heritage children in the youth justice population was consistent with the composition of the general community in 2010, but in the intervening years has doubled.