2020 News: Youth Justice

29/03/2021: Police chief warns of race crisis damaging effectiveness of policing

A senior police chief has warned of the damaging effect distrust in British policing in black communities is having on the effectiveness of law enforcement as he vowed to bring about change. Martin . . . Hewitt said trust and confidence in policing is 20% lower among the black population compared with the average, and highlighted the need to boost the number of black recruits in police forces.
Sky

26/03/2021: Campaign calls for ban on handcuffing children

A new campaign is calling for a ban on the use of handcuffs on children and young people. The Hope not Handcuffs campaign, led by care services provider Serenity Welfare, is urging the government to . . . ban the use of handcuffs to restrain young people both in the youth justice system and in care. The move comes following anecdotal evidence from the organisation which reveals children have been handcuffed and placed in police vans to be moved between care placements.
Children and Young People Now

26/03/2021: Poverty Is Driving Crime And Policing Makes It Worse

The Revolving Doors Agency has just (24 March 2021) published new research which finds that young adults, aged 18-25, who live in the most deprived parts of the country, feel robbed of any optimism . . . about their future, because of frequent and traumatic encounters with the police. Young adults want police to identify and effectively respond to their health and human needs, to avoid them being drawn into a lifetime of crisis and crime. The research explores guiding principles for trauma and poverty responsive policing from the perspective of 100 young adults who commit repeated low-level offences. Their accounts highlight how their experiences of policing is tied in a knot with their experiences of trauma, poverty and structural inequalities.
Russell Webster