Page 108 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

9. The Home Office should immediately suspend any further section 60
authorisations until it has undertaken an independent evaluation of the impact
and effectiveness of these searches, supported by a public consultation. In the
meantime, while section 60 authorisations continue, we recommend that the
changes made under the pilot scheme be immediately reversed, and be subject
to the prior review of Community Scrutiny Panels (para 2.33).

Gangs

10. The police should automatically consider the possession of a knife by a child
as a safeguarding concern rather than as an indicator of potential violence
(para 2.37).

11. The Gangs Violence Matrix should be abolished. Until the Gangs Violence
Matrix is abolished it should primarily serve as a safeguarding tool, with
respect to children, young, and vulnerable adults (para 2.43 and 2.44).

12. When provided with evidence of an individual’s inclusion on the Gangs
Violence Matrix, prosecutors should ask to review the underlying data that
triggered the inclusion. Further, if adduced in court (including for bail
applications and injunctions), this information should be disclosed as a matter
of course. The Crown Prosecution Service must ensure that it reviews every
decision to adduce gang association for accuracy and racial bias and explore
different ways of prosecuting crimes perpetrated by groups of children and
young adults (para 2.48 and 2.49).

13. Evidence of producing Drill music or appearing in Drill videos should not be
used as bad character evidence unless it can be shown to be relevant to the
specific crime. Moreover, we consider that courts should apply more rigour in
determining the relevance and admissibility of Drill due to the corrosive effect
of portraying a genre of music so closely connected to Black communities as
innately illegal, dangerous and problematic (para 2.53).

14. Joint experts should genuinely understand Drill and its cultural context. Any
report on the content should, where possible, be agreed by both the defence
and prosecution. This would allow for a more objective assessment of the
relevance of the evidence, and safeguard against inappropriate extensions of
what might be viewed as opinion evidence. (para 2.54).

101