Addressing racial disparity in the youth justice system: Promising practice examples

Summary

This report, commissioned by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and authored by Revolving Doors, outlines ways to influence and improve practice across the sector. It presents case study examples of local practice delivered by youth justice services and their partners to tackle racial disparity and over-representation in the youth justice system.

The report showcases a range of promising practices across England and Wales, which we hope can help inform services in other areas who are looking to either adapt or adopt a similar approach.

Approach  

• We identified potential examples of evidence based, promising and good practice through the following methods:
  • Desk-based research, including reviewing existing YJB outputs and academic and grey literature on the subject. Raising awareness of the project and putting a call-out for examples through Revolving Doors newsletter, YJB communications with the sector, and attendance at regional YJB meetings.
  • Liaising directly with YJB staff to discuss disparity data and local outcomes data.
  • We did not limit the search only to programmes with an explicit focus on addressing racial disparity. We also included programmes that are open to all children, but that have achieved particularly good outcomes for children from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds, or which are working in a way that has been evidenced to be important in addressing racial disparities and/or contact with the youth justice system more generally

Key findings 

The practice examples in the report cover a number of themes:

• ways to influence practice across partners in youth justice.
• examples of practice that is directly working with children and their families.
• work that is focused on the voices of children and collecting and sharing their views to influence positive change.

We aim to show that a range of interventions can be introduced, working directly with children, or to influence specific parts of the system, and to encourage youth justice services and their partners consider whether such practice could be adapted or adopted elsewhere.

The monitoring and evaluation which underpins the learning or outcomes reported here is usually measured via self-report before and after recipients engaging in the programme. In most cases therefore, even where external evaluation has been conducted, findings are only able to tell us about a programme or intervention’s potential or promise to improve outcomes. In most cases, the outcomes reported cannot be used as confirmation of whether engaging in the programme is effective relative to not receiving the programme, or receiving an alternative programme, or whether the intervention has had a direct impact on addressing racial disparities in that area.

Recommendations and next steps 

In many cases there is limited data to show the impact of interventions on different groups of ethnic minority children and on addressing racial disparities in the youth justice system more generally. Therefore, to better understand ‘what works’ in reducing over-representation of ethnic minority children (including White minorities) in the youth justice system further monitoring and evaluation that focuses on this will be important. All-too often promising pilots do not get long-term funding. Programmes need to be funded for an extended period to allow long-term change to be realised.

The examples included in this resource are not exhaustive. We know that there are a range of grassroots and ‘by and for’ organisations that would be well placed to support efforts to reduce over-representation of ethnic minority children in the youth justice system due to their expertise and connections with children in their local communities