Stephen Lawrence Day: we need to recognise the drivers for disparity

Today, people across the UK remember Stephen Lawrence, who at just 18 was murdered in an unprovoked racist attack. Every year, on 22 April, Stephen Lawrence Day is an opportunity for people to come together and honour Stephen’s life and legacy and stand up against discrimination.

At the YJB, we have been highlighting the issues of over-representation and disproportionality of Black children and those with Mixed ethnicity within the youth justice system for more than a decade. And so, it seems timely to highlight the information on disparity that we have captured in our Annual Statistics.

What do our Annual Youth Justice Statistics show?

While there have been promising reductions across different stages of the youth justice system, Black children and those with Mixed ethnicity continued to be over-represented.

Compared with the proportion of Black children in the 10-17 population, Black children are disproportionately represented across most stages of the youth justice system.

There have been some encouraging reductions across several areas in recent years, including stop and search, arrests, youth cautions, first time entrants, sentencing and children in custody.

What does the wider evidence tell us?

Addressing ethnic disparities in the youth justice system is one of the YJB’s strategic priorities and will require close partnership working to achieve. We now know more about the existence and extent of ethnic disparities, and potential drivers, but less about potential solutions.
• all ethnic minority groups are more likely to receive a custodial remand than a community remand relative to White children
• there is a higher than expected reoffending rate for Black and Mixed ethnicity children, even after contextual factors are taken into account and children from a Black, Asian or Mixed ethnicity background are more likely to receive a custodial sentence following reoffending compared with White children

Intersectionality is also apparent when analysing the data from other government departments - for example custodial sentences have been found to be twice as common among care-experienced children with a Black or Mixed ethnicity compared with care-experienced children who were White.

YJB research identifies that the key drivers of ethnic disparity in child reoffending include:

This is consistent with findings from wider research and data which finds that Black and Mixed ethnicity children are:
• more likely to be living in poverty
• more likely to be care experienced
• more likely to be excluded from education than White children

In line with this, HM Inspectorate of Probation (2021) found that 60% of Black or Mixed ethnicity boys sentenced to court orders had been excluded from school, often permanently.

With the structure and safety of the school system removed (including access to heat, food, and a community of peers) it may increase the chances a child may become involved in crime. The HM Inspectorate of Probation thematic review also reports that Black and Mixed ethnicity boys in the justice system are more likely than others to have an Education, Health and Care plan and unaddressed special educational needs and disabilities. This creates additional vulnerability for these children for which they may be currently receiving insufficient support both before and after entry to the youth justice system.

Promising interventions to address ethnic disparity include racially sensitive interventions and training for staff to be more culturally competent, with a contextual understanding of the child/families’ personal experiences, as well as constant investment/interest in improving and understanding structural inequalities.

What are we and others doing?

To try and reduce disparity, the YJB has published research on ethnic disparities in reoffending rates, and recently funded the evaluation of the Brent and Newham COVID-19 over-represented children pathfinder.

Ongoing and upcoming work to further explore and address disparity for children from ethnic minority backgrounds includes:
• research into the usage of Pre-Sentence Reports being conducted by Ipsos Mori and Manchester Metropolitan University will be published in spring 2024
• Revolving Doors have been commissioned to produce a Disparity Good Practice report which will include case studies of good practice in tackling inequalities in youth justice which will be published in 2024
• bids for the Addressing Disproportionality Pathfinder have now closed and the commercial process is ongoing
• the upcoming release of the Case Level Ethnic Disparity Tool which will be made available to youth justice services and enable them to investigate disproportionality within their service

A range of research activity is being delivered by the sector around ethnic disparity, many of which we will keep track of through our strategic relationships, including:
• The Youth Endowment Fund have commissioned The University of Greenwich to review evidence of what works in tackling racial disparity
• The Nuffield Foundation have funded a project on Racial Disparity in Diversion which The University of Bedfordshire will undertake

Stephen Lawrence Day serves as a poignant reminder of the need to confront racial injustice and systemic discrimination. But there is no one-solution to a systemic problem. Of course, we want fewer Black and Mixed ethnicity children entering the justice system, but to achieve this, we need to recognise the drivers for disparity and work collaboratively to achieve whole system change.