Page 55 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

they do not recognise as supportive and protective. This highlights the need for
a YJS that is curious about the people before it and seeks to fully understand
them. Sadly, at present many BAME girls and young women feel that their
histories and circumstances are often not accounted for in proceedings. 167

2.69 Away from gangs, similar patterns exist within other contexts. Asian and
Muslim girls and young women are often coerced into criminality and are not
treated seriously as victims. There are also additional elements of shame and
lack of confidence in the police, meaning that Asian and Muslim girls and
young women may find it difficult to report crimes against them, 168 and suffer
acute stigma if they are found to have committed a crime. 169

2.70 There is a failure on the part of the police to convince Muslim, Asian or GRT
girls and young women that their reports of crime will be taken seriously.
Where investigations do take place, there are regular complaints that they are
not investigated to an acceptable standard. 170 This reduces the likelihood of
those individuals reporting further offending in the future. 171 Proper
investigation of crime, with an understanding of the risks that BAME girls and
young women face, would allow the police to identify any potential risks of
exploitation and avoid criminalising victims. If such risks are properly
identified, referrals to safeguarding mechanisms (either through the local
authority or the NRM) can be made.

2.71 However, for this to be effective, there must be a clear understanding of what
vulnerability and exploitation is and when safeguarding is required. We have

167 J. Cox and K. Sacks-Jones, “Double disadvantage”: the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority
Ethnic women in the criminal justice system, (Agenda, 2017), p. 6.
168 S. Gohir, Muslim Women’s Experiences of the Criminal Justice System: Executive Summary,
(Muslim Women’s Network UK, 2019).
169 Prison Reform Trust, Counted out: Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in the criminal justice
system, (2017), p. 5.
170 In one investigation where a woman of Somali heritage was attacked, “an officer later questioned her
about whether she had been buying something from her attackers, which she had taken to mean drugs.
She also said no statement was taken from her for two months, and still not from her two friends. She
said police failed to secure CCTV footage, which has now been lost, and might have helped tracked
down the racist attackers, who remain free,” in V. Dodd, ‘Met apologise over errors in racist attack
investigation’, The Guardian, 22 October 2020.
171 S. Gohir, Muslim women’s experiences of the criminal justice system, (Muslim Women’s Network
UK, 2019).

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