Last year, in Smaller, but tougher, we found that a shrinking group of young adults (18–24) reaching court for serious offences are facing tougher outcomes.
This report goes behind those trends to explain who that smaller group of young adults now are, why the system has become harsher, and what's driving the ethnic disparity and treatment of young women that ran through the earlier findings.
Rather than analysing new statistics, this report draws together existing research and literature, alongside conversations with practitioners, academics and third sector organisations, to explain the patterns we identified in the earlier data. It looks beyond the courtroom, at what happens to children and young adults before they turn 18, and before they even reach court, and treats the criminal justice system as a series of connected decision points, from policing and diversion through to charging, sentencing and rehabilitation, rather than a set of one-off moments.
The report finds that:
- The young adults now reaching court are a smaller but more complex group: most have backgrounds that include special educational needs, free school meals, persistent school absence, or previous contact with social services or the criminal justice system as children.
- Ethnic disparity builds cumulatively across decision points: even where disparity at any single stage, stop and search, diversion, charging, sentencing, is small on its own, these add up, and an earlier decision (such as remand) can go on to shape a later one (such as sentencing).
- Missing ethnicity data is driven by a mix of practical, cultural and institutional barriers, and better data alone will not address disparity, it needs to be used to explain and challenge it, not simply published as a matter of process.
- Young women continue to be remanded in cases that do not lead to a prison sentence, often to manage unmet mental health or housing needs rather than risk, though this plays out differently for Black young women, who are more likely than other young women to receive a custodial sentence.
The report concludes that addressing disparity is not the responsibility of any single decision-maker, institution, or piece of legislation, but requires action at every level, from the discretion used by individual practitioners, to institutional practice and procedure, to government policy. It closes by asking:
- How can ethnicity data be collected and used well enough to explain disparity, not just describe it?
- How can decision-makers at every level of the system, from officers on the ground to policy-makers, use the opportunities within their control to address disparity rather than replicate it?
- What would a more tailored approach to bail and remand look like for young women, particularly those from minoritised ethnic backgrounds?
We are grateful to the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, convened by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, for supporting this work.
