Black and mixed heritage young offenders ‘given harsher penalties’

Black and mixed heritage children are being handed tougher penalties than their white peers, even when they have committed the same offences, researchers are warning. White children are more likely to benefit from youth diversion programmes that divert those who have committed low level offences away from the formal youth justice system, say the academics at Manchester Metropolitan and Bedfordshire universities. Their research found that when decisions about using diversionary schemes were made solely by police and courts, “racial disproportionality and geographical disparities” increased. Read more.