Page 23 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

worst developmental outcomes. GRT children are more likely to suffer mental
and physical health issues, including substance abuse; at greater risk of infant
mortality, maternal mortality and suicide; more likely to be bullied at school
and more likely to be excluded from school; and less likely to attain formal
qualifications. This highlights a similar structural issue to other BAME
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communities: the prevalence of poverty and deprivation. There has been a lack
of focus on GRT communities, with little research or lack of projects being
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undertaken to better understand better their experiences of the CJS. This is
compounded by the fact that the experience of BAME children is often
contrasted with that of their White peers, which could overlook the fact that
GRT children, as a white minority ethnic group, are part of the BAME
community.

2.6 The same is true for BAME girls and young women. There appears to be a lack
of understanding of the difference in what drives them into the CJS,
accompanied by insufficient appreciation for how they behave when involved
in criminality. This leads to BAME girls and young women often being
penalised harshly for crimes they may have committed, while not being
safeguarded in cases where they are victims. Moreover, drivers of crime among
girls and young women of different racial and ethnic groups can also vary from
group to group, as well as from men of similar backgrounds.

2.7 Recently, there has been a 73% increase in the number of women and girls –
many of which are BAME - arrested and prosecuted for carrying knives, with
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25% being under 18 years of age. These increases do not paint the whole
story. Criminality in girls and women is often driven by domestic abuse, sexual
violence, exploitation, and coercion. As such, the rise in girls and young
women being arrested and prosecuted for these crimes suggests a rise in their
own abuse and exploitation. Despite an increase in awareness of these drivers,

41 The Traveller Movement, ‘Sentencing Gypsy, Traveller and Roma Children’, 2017. See also, for
example, a television show titled ‘The Truth about Traveller Crime’, broadcast in April 2020, which has
received numerous complaints to OFCOM from GRT groups, including the Traveller Movement.
42 Fair Trials, Uncovering anti-Roma discrimination in criminal justice systems in Europe: Key findings,
(November, 2020), p. 3.
43 J. Grierson, ‘Female knife possession crimes in England rise by 73%’, The Guardian, 8 August 2019.
44 C. Firmin, ‘To stop women and girls carrying knives, tackle the abuse and violence they face,’ The
Guardian, 9 August 2019.

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