Youth Justice in United Kingdom

YOUTH JUSTICE
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Youth Justice
Question 4
Institutionalised racism exists to a great extent within the UK Justice system. Young people from the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) group experience disproportionately discriminatory treatment from the country’s youth justice system. It is clear that the issue of racism has become a normal practice in the youth system. Young black people are particularly at the receiving end of the racism in the system. According to statistics by the Ministry of Justice and the Youth Justice Board, in the year that ended March 2019, Black children were more than four times more likely to be arrested compared to White children (Ministry of Justice, 2020, p.6). This shows that a higher number of Black children start the interaction with the justice system at a young age compared to the number of White children. With institutional racism also characterising the lives of Blacks in adulthood, it is deducible that they receive disproportionately discriminatory treatment in the justice system for a larger part of their lives. Compared to White children, the Chinese, Mixed or other ethnical backgrounds were twice as likely to be arrested. Therefore, it is inferable that while black children face more discrimination from the justice system, children from other races are also victims of the institutionalised racism that exists in the system.
A recent statistic that underpins the existence of institutionalised racism indicates that the Metropolitan Police carried out more than 20,000 searches on young black males between the months of March and May 2020 (Gierson, 2020). It is interesting that over 80% of the searches did not result in any further action. In addition, if a person identifies as black in Wales and England, they are re about 10 times more likely to be stopped compared to people that identify as white. The disproportionality in the rate of stops and searches for young Blacks means that racism has been normalised in the youth justice system. This discrimination in the justice system prevents to a great extent black people from carrying out their daily businesses comfortably.
A case that has found itself in the limelight recently revolves around the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Lawrence was murdered by a racist gang as he tried to catch a bus with a friend in Eltham (News, 2020). Although five suspects were named anonymously by informants after the death, there were no arrests made for two weeks. As informed by the BBC News (2020), it was not until 2012 that two suspects, David Norris and Gary Dobson, were convicted for murdering Lawrence. This is a case of justice denied for the young black teenager. It is arguable that the case would have been hastened had the victim been white.
The high proportion of young people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds in the country’s prisons for young people also signifies the existence of institutional racism. In young offender institutions (YOIs), around 51% of young men came from a BME background (Gierson, 2019). Furthermore, for secure training centres (STC), young people from BME backgrounds make 42% of the ...