Understanding the intersections between care experience, ethnicity and youth justice involvement

This research used data made available via the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service, which is being expanded and improved with ADR UK funding.

Author: Dr Katie Hunter, Manchester Metropolitan University

Date: August 2024

Research summary

This project utilised the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) & Department for Education (DfE) linked dataset - England. It explored an important gap in understanding about the relationship between having been in care, ethnicity, and youth justice involvement in England.

The findings received widespread media coverage and were referenced in the House of Lords. As a result of the project, the researcher is currently feeding into policy conversations with the Youth Justice Board and a government strategy to support care-experienced people in the prisons and probations service. The project also fed into the development of the MoJ & DfE linked dataset to enable further analysis to improve the targeting of policy decisions.

The research found disproportionately high rates of youth justice involvement and custodial sentences among care-experienced children (compared to those who had not been in care), which particularly affected some racially minoritised groups. The project was the largest longitudinal analysis of care experience, ethnicity and youth justice involvement in England to date and made national headlines.

This project was part of Dr Katie Hunter’s ADR UK Research Fellowship which explored the following research questions:

1. What proportion of children have experience of the looked after system and the youth justice system?
2. Does youth justice involvement vary according to ethnicity?
3. How do care-experienced and non-care experienced children’s sentence lengths compare for three offence types (actual bodily harm, robbery and possession of an article with blade or point), and do these relationships vary by ethnicity?
4. How do factors (demographic characteristics, legal status, placement type) impact number of youth justice cautions or convictions for care-experienced children?

This impact case study focuses on research questions 1, 2 and 4.

The project was partnered with the charity Barnardo’s, who carried out complementary qualitative research with Black care-experienced young people in prison. Using collaborative dissemination and engagement strategies, the projects created a strong evidence base for challenging the disproportionate criminalisation of care-experienced children and young people from different ethnic backgrounds.

Data used

The project involved analysis of the de-identified MoJ & DfE linked dataset – England, which was developed as part of the Data First programme. This included combining data from the following datasets:

• National Pupil Database
• Children Looked After Returns
• Police National Computer Data.

Demographic information including birth year, sex and ethnicity was extracted from the National Pupil Database. This was linked with information about interactions with children’s social care using the Children Looked After Returns, and the youth justice system using the Police National Computer data. The analysis was carried out in the ONS Secure Research Service.

Methods used

The analysis involved a longitudinal approach, which included four groups of children born between 1996 and 1999. Demographic information for children born in each birth year was extracted from the respective 2006 to 2009 educational censuses when they were aged 10 – the minimum age of criminal responsibility in England. The resulting dataset contained information for approximately 2.3 million children.

The dataset included demographic information, details of children’s services involvement and/or youth justice involvement. Children were counted as ‘care-experienced’ if they had at least one children’s services record as a looked after child. Children were counted as having ‘youth justice involvement’ if they received at least one caution or conviction between the ages of 10 and 17.

To be included in the analysis, children born between 1996 and 1999 had to have a record in the National Pupil Database in England at age 10. Therefore, the data may not be representative of all children in England. There are also limitations that mean we might be underestimating the number of care-experienced children in the dataset. For example, children who ceased to be looked after before entering school do not have a record in the available children’s services data. As such, the results may not be representative of all care-experienced children in England.  Despite these challenges, this data offers important opportunities to carry out large scale analyses for public good.

The analysis included descriptive statistics about the nature and extent of youth justice involvement, including number cautions or convictions, offence types, and sentence types received. Descriptive statistics were also broken down by demographic characteristics including ethnicity and sex. The research also involved regression analyses of sentence type and length for three offence types: Actual Bodily Harm, Robbery and Possession of a Blade. Regression analyses of the number of youth justice cautions or convictions received were also carried out.

Research findings

In September 2023, the following four key findings were published in a policy briefing:

Key Finding 1: Care-experienced children were disproportionately likely to have youth justice involvement compared to those without care experience. 1 in 3 care-experienced children received a youth justice caution or conviction between the ages of 10 and 17, compared to just 4% of children who had not been in care. Youth justice involvement was even more common among some groups of ethnic minority care-experienced children.

Key Finding 2: The gap in youth justice involvement between care-experienced children and non-care-experienced children widened over time. This gap widened further still for some groups of ethnic minority children.

Key Finding 3: Care-experienced children tended to have much more youth justice involvement than non-care-experienced children. Care-experienced children typically received four youth justice cautions or convictions compared to one caution or conviction for children who had not been in care. Some groups of ethnic minority care-experienced children had even higher levels of youth justice involvement (see Figure 1 below).

Key Finding 4: A significantly higher proportion of care-experienced children received a custodial sentence compared non-care-experienced children. 1 in 20 care-experienced children (5%) received a custodial sentence compared to less than 1% of children who had not been in care. Custodial sentences were nearly twice as common among Black and Mixed ethnicity care-experienced children compared to White care-experienced children.

Research impact

The research has opened several promising routes to impact across policy, practice and wider society. It involved a comprehensive dissemination and engagement strategy in collaboration with Barnardo’s. Notable activities included a joint launch event at the Museum of Liverpool, a parliamentary roundtable sponsored by Baroness Floella Benjamin, and an animation developed collaboratively and published online. Key findings from the policy briefing were featured in a Guardian exclusive. They were also quoted in Baroness Floella Benjamin’s speech in the House of Lords about the criminalisation of Black care-experienced young people.

Katie is engaged in ongoing policy conversations with the Youth Justice Board to strengthen their efforts to reduce unnecessary criminalisation. At the regional level, she is working with Greater Manchester Combined Authority to ensure their local protocol to reduce unnecessary criminalisation is child-centred. Katie is also feeding into the updated Care Experienced Strategy with His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.

In addition to this, Katie was contacted by a care-experienced man in his 70s who had read about the research in the Guardian. The man asked for advice on supporting care-experienced people in his community. Katie is now in regular contact with the man who is preparing to volunteer with a local organisation. 

The research has also had a tangible impact on the administrative data landscape. Throughout the project, Katie worked closely with the data owners to refine clearance processes and contribute to dataset development. As a result, the MoJ & DfE linked dataset has now been enhanced to include more detailed care history data. This will enable an analysis on the timing of youth justice involvement to better target policy decisions. In January 2024, the MoJ Data First team was awarded the Office for National Statistics’ Analysis in Government Collaboration Award and this project was cited as contributing to this achievement.  

Research outputs

Publications and reports

• Data Explained, October 2022
• Policy Briefing: Care experience, ethnicity and youth justice involvement - key trends and policy implications, September 2023

Blogs, news posts, and videos

• Blog: Exploring ethnicity, care experience and justice systems involvement, April 2022
• Challenging (In)Justice, Joint animation with Barnardo’s, October 2023

Presentations and awards

• Keynote speech at Open Forum Events: Children Looked After Conference 2024, 23^rd May 2024
• Keynote speech at The Care Leavers Event 2023: Improving Outcomes and Fulfilling Potential, 11^th October 2023
• “‘You don’t even hear us, you don’t even see us’: Understanding the needs of Black care-experienced young people in the criminal justice system”, HMPPS Insights Event with Barnardo’s, 4^th October 2023
• Challenging (In)justice: How being Black and Care-experienced Impacts Justice System Involvement in England, Joint Launch Event with Barnardo’s, Museum of Liverpool, 22^nd September 2023
• “Using Linked Administrative Data to Understand Longstanding Inequalities: Ethnicity, Care Experience and Youth Justice Involvement”, British Society of Criminology Conference, 8^th July 2023

About the ONS Secure Research Service

The ONS Secure Research Service is an accredited trusted research environment, using the Five Safes Framework to provide secure access to de-identified, unpublished data.

If you use ONS Secure Research Service data and would like to discuss writing a future case study with us, please get in touch at IDS.Impact@ons.gov.uk. Please also report any outputs here: Outputs Reporting Form

This project was a collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and Lancaster University. It received additional funding and support from Metropolis, MMU’s policy focused thinktank.