Crime-affected children add their voice to new research

The voices of crime-affected children take centre stage in a new report to address the over-representation of black and minority ethnic youngsters in the youth justice system.

The report showcases the research findings from the Disproportionality Leadership and Mentoring Project, which took a unique approach by prioritising and capturing what minoritised children and young people had to say about their involvement in the criminal justice system.

These findings now form the basis of a series of recommendations aimed at addressing some of the key drivers of disproportionality and improving the lived experience of children and young people from minority backgrounds.

Criminologists from the University of Essex and City, University of London worked on the project in partnership with the London Boroughs of Islington, Camden, Hackney and Haringey. Its key aim is to contribute valuable insight to help develop a new approach to strengthening multi-agency partnership working to address the local drivers of disproportionality.

Professor Chris Greer, from the University of Essex’s Centre for Criminology, said: “Our findings confirmed many of the concerns that are known about children and young people who offend, where typical childhoods are characterised by various factors including trauma, instability and intervention by the local authority from a young age.

“The strength of this project is that we captured the voices of children and young people not only to be heard, but also directly to inform the development of solutions to the multiple, varied and complex challenges shaping many lives across the four London boroughs and beyond. This is crucial if long term change is to be achieved.”

Curtis Ashton, Director of Young Islington, London Borough of Islington, added: “This is one of the UK’s largest ever studies of disproportionality in relation to children and young people in the youth justice system.

“Utilising the expertise of top researchers from the University of Essex and City, University of London, we now have rich qualitative data from children and young people themselves to help in our pursuit of fairness and equality.”

The report is timely due to children and young people from Black, mixed heritage and some other racial minority communities still more likely to be involved in the youth justice system, and the situation has not improved. This is contrary to other national successes in the youth justice arena in recent years, such as the reduction in first time entrants, the number of children and young people in custody and improvements in reoffending rates.

The project involved an intense mentoring programme designed and delivered by WIPERS – a Black-led organisation with extensive experience in working directly with socially-excluded children and young people with complex needs and from diverse communities.

In depth interviews and focus groups were conducted with children and young people from minority backgrounds, mentors, practitioners and parents/carers. However, priority was given to the voices of the youngsters.

In total, more than 200,000 words of first-person accounts was collated and analysed by the research team to get to the heart of the participants’ lived experiences of disproportionality.

The project was funded by the MOPAC’s (The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime) Disproportionality Challenge Fund.