The brains of children and young adults are going through significant change and development and these changes are linked to being able to control behaviour.
The brain continues to change and develop into the early 20s. These are factors that may be relevant to a child’s offending behaviour and their ability to effectively participate in criminal proceedings.
- 1. Sir William MacPherson, ‘The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry’, February 1999, para 6.39, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf
- 2. ‘The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on: Third Report of Session 2021–22’, House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, HC 139, 30 July 2021, https://committees.parliament.uk/work/347/the-macpherson-report-twentyone-years-on/publications/
- 3. ‘The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on ‘ p13; source: Baroness Lawrence, Evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, 5 February 2019
- 4. ‘The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on ‘ p8
- 5. ‘The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on ‘ p124, para 415: ‘As part of its 2021 report, HMICFRS [HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services] examined whether there was disproportionality in the use of force and concluded that despite limitations in the way police forces record “use of force”, and incomplete data (some forces are not recording the ethnicity of individuals subjected to force), “the data suggests a disproportionate use of force”.701 Based on 2019/20 data, it stated that Black people were about 5.7 times more likely to have force used on them than White people’
- 6.a. b. ‘Youth Justice Statistics, 2020/21, England and Wales’, YJB and MOJ, 27 January 2022, Figure 7.6, https://assets.publishing.service.gov. uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1054236/Youth_Justice_Statistics_2020-21.pdf
- 7. Abdi v R [2022] EWCA Crim 315
- 8. K Samuelson, ‘Rap on Trial: the battle to keep lyrics out of courtrooms’, The Week, 25 January 2022, www.theweek.co.uk/news/ crime/955521/rap-on-trial-battle-stop-lyrics-courtrooms
- 9. ‘Youth Justice Statistics, 2020/21, England and Wales’, Youth Justice Board (YJB) and Ministry of Justice (MOJ), 27 January 2022, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1054236/Youth_Justice_ Statistics_2020-21.pdf
- 10. ‘More than half of UK’s black children live in poverty, analysis shows’, The Guardian, 2 January 2022, www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ jan/02/more-than-half-of-uks-black-children-live-in-poverty-analysis-shows
- 11. ‘Exclusion rates five times higher for black Caribbean pupils in parts of England’, The Guardian, 24 March 2021, www.theguardian.com/ education/2021/mar/24/exclusion-rates-black-caribbean-pupils-england
- 12. ‘“School-to-prison pipeline”’: youth justice services failing black boys’, The Guardian, 21 October 2021, www.theguardian.com/ society/2021/oct/21/youth-justice-services-still-failing-black-and-mixed-heritage-boys-finds-report
- 13. See by analogy, the Associated Press style guide on capitalising ‘Black’ – namely emphasising that ‘lowercase black is a color, not a person’: https://apnews.com/article/archive-race-and-ethnicity-9105661462
- 14. Sir William MacPherson, ‘The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry’, February 1999, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf
- 15. ‘Oral statement to Parliament: Stop and search: Comprehensive package of reform for police stop and search powers’, Home Office and Theresa May, 30 April 2014, www.gov.uk/government/speeches/stop-and-search-comprehensive-package-of-reform-for-police-stopand- search-powers
- 16. ‘The Lammy Review: An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the Criminal Justice System’, 2017, www.gov.uk/government/publications/lammy-review-final-report
- 17. ‘Youth Justice Statistics, 2020/21, England and Wales’, YJB and MOJ, 27 January 2022, para 3, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1054236/Youth_Justice_Statistics_2020-21.pdf
- 18. ‘Ethnic disproportionality in remand and sentencing in the youth justice system: Analysis of administrative data’, YJB, 2021, para 44, p16
- 19. ‘Ethnic disproportionality in remand and sentencing in the youth justice system: Analysis of administrative data’, YJB, 2021, p52, https:// assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/952483/Ethnic_disproportionality_in_ remand_and_sentencing_in_the_youth_justice_system.pdf
- 20. ‘Youth Justice Statistics, 2020/21, England and Wales’, YJB and MOJ, 27 January 2022, para 7.9, p45, https://assets.publishing.service. gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1054236/Youth_Justice_Statistics_2020-21.pdf
- 21. ‘Youth Justice Statistics, 2020/21, England and Wales’, YJB and MOJ, 27 January 2022, Figure 7.6, p36, https://assets.publishing.service. gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1054236/Youth_Justice_Statistics_2020-21.pdf
- 22.a. b. V Weisz, T Wingrove and A Faith-Slaker, ‘Children and procedural justice’, Court Review, Vol 44, p38, www.proceduralfairness.org/__ data/assets/pdf_file/0019/5770/weisz.pdf
- 23. V Weisz, T Wingrove and A Faith-Slaker, ‘Children and procedural justice’, Court Review, Vol 44, p41, www.proceduralfairness.org/__data/ assets/pdf_file/0019/5770/weisz.pdf
- 24.a. b. D Robson, ‘What unconscious bias training gets wrong ... and how to fix it’, The Guardian, 25 April 2021, www.theguardian.com/ science/2021/apr/25/what-unconscious-bias-training-gets-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
- 25. See, for instance, YJB research relating to the racial bias in Asset risk assessment: ‘Ethnic disproportionality in remand and sentencing in the youth justice system: Analysis of administrative data’, 2021, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ uploads/attachment_data/file/952483/Ethnic_disproportionality_in_remand_and_sentencing_in_the_youth_justice_system.pdf. See also Dr Jahnine Davis’ research on adultification: J Davis and N Marsh, ‘Boys to men: the cost of “adultification” in safeguarding responses to Black boys’, Critical and Radical Social Work, (2020) vol 8, no 2, 255–259, DOI: 10.1332/204986020X15945756023543
- 26. For more information, see W McMahon and R Roberts, ‘Truth and lies about “race” and “crime”’, CJM 83: Myths and criminal justice, www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/cjm/article/truth-and-lies-about-race-and-crime
- 27. C Wells, ‘Microaggressions: What They Are and Why They Matter’, 24 Texas Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy, 2017, https://racism.org/ component/mailto/?tmpl=component&template=cloudbase3&link=f92f60ff08bbd2f6cf400733679affa06183258d
- 28. Dr Chester Pierce, ’Offensive Mechanisms’, in The Black Seventies, ed Floyd B Barbour (Boston: P Sargent, 1970), 265–266
- 29. Racial Justice for Youth: A Toolkit for Defenders, ‘Confronting Bias’, Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative and the Gault Center: Defenders of Youth Rights, 2021/22, www.defendracialjustice.org/confronting-bias/
- 30.a. b. ‘Youth Justice Board for England and Wales: Strategic plan 2019–2022’, 24 May 2019, www.gov.uk/government/publications/youthjustice- board-for-england-and-wales-strategic-plan-2019-22
- 31. s37 Crime and Disorder Act 1998
- 32. s44 Children and Young Persons Act 1933
- 33. s11(2)(a) Children Act 2004
- 34. Art 3(1) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; see also the European Court of Human Rights decision in Neulinger and Shuruk v Switzerland, App No 41615/07, [2010] ECHR 1053, (2010) 28 BHRC 706 which highlights that ‘in all decisions concerning children, their best interests must be paramount’ (at para 135)
- 35. See J Davis and N Marsh, ‘Boys to men: the cost of ‘adultification’ in safeguarding responses to Black boys’, Critical and Radical Social Work, Vol 8, No 2, August 2020, pp255–259(5)
- 36. PA Goff, M Jackson, B Di Leone, C Culotta and N Ditomasso, ‘The essence of innocence: consequences of dehumanizing Black children’, (2014) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4): 526–545; and R Epstein, J Blake and T Gonzalez, ‘Girlhood interrupted: the erasure of Black girls’ childhood’, (2017) The Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3000695
- 37. PA Goff, M Jackson, B Di Leone, C Culotta. and N Ditomasso, ‘The essence of innocence: consequences of dehumanizing Black children’ (2014) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4): 526–545; J Davis and N Marsh, ‘Boys to men: the cost of “adultification” in safeguarding responses to Black boys’, (2020) Critical and Radical Social Work, vol 8, no 2, 255–259, DOI: 10.1332/204986020X159457560 23543
- 38.a. b. J Davis and N Marsh, ‘Boys to men: the cost of “adultification” in safeguarding responses to Black boys’, (2020) Critical and Radical Social Work, vol 8, no 2, 255–259, DOI: 10.1332/204986020X15945756023543
- 39. ‘Waltham Forest Safeguarding Children Board: Serious Case Review – Child C, a 14 year old boy’, May 2020, www.walthamforest.gov.uk/ sites/default/files/2021-11/WFSCB%20-%20SCR%20Child%20C%20May%20final_.pdf
- 40. K Welch, ‘Black criminal stereotypes and racial profiling’, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (2007) 23(3): 276–88. doi: 10.1177/1043986207306870; J Davis and N Marsh (2020) ‘Boys to men: the cost of “adultification” in safeguarding responses to Black boys’, Critical and Radical Social Work, (2020) vol 8, no 2, 255–259, DOI: 10.1332/204986020X15945756023543
- 41. J Davis and N Marsh (2020) ‘Boys to men: the cost of “adultification” in safeguarding responses to Black boys’, Critical and Radical Social Work (2020), vol 8, no 2, 255–259, DOI: 10.1332/204986020X15945756023543
- 42. Oxford Reference: www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100412531
- 43.a. b. T Kraemer and E Patten, ‘Establishing a trauma-informed lawyer-client relationship (part one)’, ABA Child Law Practice, vol 33 no 10, October 2014, p199, www.lsc-sf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Article_Establishing-a-Trauma-Informed-Lawyer-Client-Relationship.pdf
- 44. ‘Trauma-informed lawyering’, April 2021, https://yjlc.uk/resources/legal-guides-and-toolkits/trauma-informed-lawyering
- 45. Definition cited by Professor Kristin Henning, Gault Center: Defenders of Youth Rights (formerly the National Juvenile Defender Centre, Georgetown University)
- 46. D English et al, ‘Daily multidimensional racial discrimination among Black US American adolescents’, 66 J Applied Dev Psychol (2020)
- 47. ‘Young Muslims on trial: A scoping study on the impact of Islamophobia on criminal justice decision-making’, T2A Alliance (Transition to Adulthood) and Maslaha, March 2016, https://t2a.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Young_Muslims_on_Trial.pdf
- 48. ‘Prevent scheme “built on Islamophobia and should be axed”’, BBC, 29 August 2017, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41082086
- 49. ‘Press Release: Racism, Islamophobia and the British police’, Islamic Human Rights Commission, 22 October 2003, www.ihrc.org.uk/ press-releases/press-release-racism-islamophobia-and-the-british-police/
- 50. TRT World, ‘Manchester police face backlash from ‘Islamophobic’ exercise’, 11 May 2016, www.trtworld.com/europe/manchester-policeface- backlash-of-islamophobic-exercise-104051
- 51. Arab News, ‘UK cop avoids being fired over Islamophobia’, 31 May 2021, www.arabnews.com/node/1867886/world
- 52. R Carter, ‘New statistics confirm what we already knew – Islamophobia is thriving in all parts of British society’, Independent, 16 July 2019, www.independent.co.uk/voices/islamophobia-new-statistics-hope-hate-british-muslims-society-a9006516.html