The swirling current of criminalisation
At our webinar on socially-distanced justice yesterday, Liz Fekete of the Institute of Race Relations argued that a focus on racial disproportionalities failed to address the real causes of criminalisation of young people.
"The trouble with the discussion around disparities and disproportionalities", she said, "is that it doesn't deliver racial justice. It tinkers around with the system".
She added:
At the bottom of the experience for BME communities in the criminal justice system is a swirling current of criminalisation. Of young people being criminalised because they live in overcrowded conditions, they live in high-rise estates, in areas that are being gentrified.
She also talked about how pupils living in poor housing conditions and poverty ended up being treated as disruptive at school and subject to excessive policing.
Watch what she said here.