Keith Fraser, Chair of the YJB, highlights the systemic biases that fuel the over-representation of Black and Mixed ethnicity children in the youth justice system. He explores the structural reform and culturally sensitive interventions that can ensure fairness and equity within the system.
Our understanding of ethnic disproportionality in the youth justice system has deepened over the past few years.
While earlier thinking focused heavily on the numbers - which remain critical - our lens continues to widen to consider the structural and institutional factors that create and sustain inequality. This broadening considers both the formal system and the factors 'prior' to the system. This is crucial because, despite our concerted activity to shine a light on this issue, Black and Mixed ethnicity continue to be over-represented at almost every stage in the youth justice system.
Disparities linked to race often begin earlier in a child's life and continue to shape results throughout the system:
Persistent poverty: In 2022 21% of Black children and 32% of Asian children lived in persistent low-income households compared with 17% of White children (after housing costs).
Special educational needs (SEN) recognition: 9.1% of Asian children, 11.7% of Black children, and 13.6% of Mixed ethnicity children have a recognised SEN, compared to 15.4% of white children.
School exclusions: Black Caribbean pupils in England face permanent school exclusion rates three times higher than White British pupils.
Child death rate: The child death rate for Black children is 55.4 per 100,000-more than double the rate for White British children (22.9 per 100,000)
We must continue to respond to any evidence that the youth justice system isn't equitable for all children but, as these statistics show, we must also strengthen partnership working. This must happen at a local authority and national level and involve a range of agencies such as education, health and housing as well as the police and justice system.
Analysing potential areas of progress is just as important. In our youth justice statistics, we have seen small reductions for Black children in the use of remand, reoffending rates and numbers in custody over the last ten years. Whereas the proportion of children with Mixed ethnicity in custody has doubled over the past decade. Why is this happening? This is something we must understand and, more importantly, work together to prevent it.
Adultification in action
Within the system, Black children are all too often seen as older, less innocent, and less vulnerable than their peers. This is a practice known as 'adultification' and we are seeing growing evidence of its prevalence in the system. It is surfacing throughout the system, from assessments and reports through to decisions and outcomes. For example, in our independently commissioned research on pre-sentence reports, we discovered that the language used in these reports differed depending on the child's ethnicity. Black children tended to be referred to with the more formal language you would expect to find in adult courts. This could potentially minimise their vulnerability or circumstances, placing more emphasis on their choices and maturity to resist, which is a hallmark of adultification bias.
At the YJB, we continue to use our influence to press the system to uncover and dismantle any biases that shape decisions and outcomes. This directly aligns with the Child First evidence base and decision-making framework, ensuring every intervention is developmentally informed and prioritises the child's best interests.
The most potent evidence of this bias is found in risk assessments. Analysis shows that practitioner assessments of the likelihood of reoffending are inflated for Black children by 37.2 percentage points. That is almost double that of White children and shows that Black children are considered a higher 'risk'. This is adultification in action.
