Page 22 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

to 10% for their White counterparts. In addition, Muslim people are more
35
likely to experience higher rates of poverty and homelessness than White
people. In this context, it is also concerning that public attitudes often
36
emphasise an erroneous link between ‘terrorism’ and Islam, which has
heightened racist and Islamophobic prejudice against Muslim communities.
37
Criminal justice agencies therefore frequently view religious observance as
38
inherently suspicious.
2.4 Within society, discrimination against GRT people is still largely accepted.
This was further evidenced when the Traveller Movement commissioned
YouGov to conduct a poll in Great Britain, which found that:

a) 66% of people do not consider GRT people as an ethnic group;
b) Over a third of parents would be unhappy if their child had a playdate at
the home of a GRT person;
c) 42% of people would be unhappy if a close relative married a GRT
person; and
d) 13% of people said pubs and restaurants should refuse entry to GRT
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people for no other reason than their identity.

2.5 With discrimination being so widespread, it is no surprise that misconceptions
40
and tropes about the GRT community continue to prevail. These stereotypes
and attitudes compound the suffering of GRT children, who have some of the

35 Powell A, ‘Unemployment by ethnic background’, Briefing Paper Number 6385, 22 May 2019, p. 3.
36 Women’s Budgeting Group (WBG), Intersecting Inequalities – The impact of austerity on Black, and
Minority Ethnic women in the UK, (2018), p.2 and Institute of Race Relations ‘Inequality, housing and
employment statistics’, para 4.
37 E. Bayrakli and F. Hafez (Eds), European Islamophobia Report 2019, (SETA, 2020).
38 Maslaha and T2A, Young Muslims on Trial, (March 2016) p.10.
39 Traveller Movement, ‘New YouGov poll finds shocking racism toward Gypsies and Travellers’.
40 A common trope is that the GRT community have criminal tendencies and are to be avoided. A further
misperception is that GRT people live in caravans and drive around the country in a nomadic fashion –
often supposedly parking on private land without permission. However, up to three quarters of GRT
people live in brick and mortar housing. Moreover, GRT people have one of the highest proportions of
people living in social rented accommodation, with over half living in council accommodation. See
Office for National Statistics, 2011 Census analysis: What does the 2011 Census tell us about the
characteristics of Gypsy or Irish travellers in England and Wales?, (2014). Moreover, Romanian Roma
are the fastest growing group of rough sleepers in Greater London: Women and Equalities Committee,
Tackling inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities, (2019), para 26.

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