Abstract/Summary

In his 2017 review of racial disparity in the criminal justice system, Rt Hon. David Lammy MP highlighted that disparity in the youth justice system was his ‘biggest concern’. Research strongly indicates that unequal treatment early in the system accumulates into larger disparities downstream. In England and Wales, the first step on the ladder of contact between children and young people and the criminal justice is often youth diversion— a set of informal, non-statutory practices in which children and young people are provided the opportunity to avoid a statutory out of court disposal or a court prosecution, and a criminal record, if they complete community-based interventions. While the evidence strongly suggests that youth diversion is beneficial for the children who go through it, and has been shown to reduce re-offending, inequality in access to, and engagement with, youth diversion is likely to have material impact on disparities later on in the system. We interviewed Youth Offending Team staff, police, solicitors, young people and their families in an in-depth look at racial disparity in youth diversion in two local authorities in England and Wales.