Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2007/8. A Ministry of Justice publication under Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991

Transcription

1 Statistics on Race the Criminal Justice System 2007/8 A Ministry of Justice publication under Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 April 2009

2 Criminal Justice Act 1991 Section 95 (1) The Secretary of State shall in each year publish such information, as he considers expedient for the purpose of: (a) enabling persons engaged in the administration of justice to become aware of the financial implications of their decisions; or (b) facilitating the performance of such persons of their duty to avoid discriminating against any persons on the ground of race or sex or any other improper ground. (2) Publication under subsection (1) above shall be effected in such a manner, as the Secretary of State considers appropriate for the purpose of bringing the information to the attention of the persons concerned. Crown copyright 2009 This publication is available on the Ministry of Justice website: ii

3 The Authors James Riley Davnet Cassidy Jane Becker With thanks to: Chris Lewis Lawrence Singer Members of the Race Statistics Advisory Group iii

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5 Contents List of tables Page vi Executive summary x Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Developments in ethnic monitoring 4 Chapter 3 Victims homicide 11 Chapter 4 Stops by the police 26 Chapter 5 Arrests cautions 71 Chapter 6 Prosecution sentencing 135 Chapter 7 Youth offending 152 Chapter 8 Probation 167 Chapter 9 Prisons 171 Chapter 10 Complaints against the police, prison & probation services 177 Chapter 11 Deaths in custody 181 Chapter 12 Practitioners in the Criminal Justice System 185 Bibliography 200 Useful references 202 Appendices 205 Contact points 213 v

6 List of tables Table A Percentage of ethnic groups at different stages of the criminal justice process compared to the ethnic breakdown of the general population, Engl Wales 2007/08 Table 3.1 Racist incidents for all police force areas 1998/9 to 2007/8 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Table 3.5 Table 3.6 Table 3.7 Table 4.1a Table 4.1b Table 4.2a Table 4.2b Table 4.3a Table 4.3b Table 4.4a Table 4.4b Table 4.5a Table 4.5b Racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by police forces by offence type, 2006/7 2007/8, with clear-up rates for Engl Wales Number of persons cautioned or prosecuted at magistrates courts the Crown Court for racially aggravated offences, by age group result, 2007 Homicides currently recorded by ethnic appearance of victim police force area: Engl Wales, combined data for 2005/06 to 2007/08 Ethnic appearance of currently recorded homicide victims by ethnicity of principal suspect: Engl Wales, combined data for 2005/06 to 2007/08 Relationship of currently recorded homicide victims to principal suspect by ethnic appearance of victim: Engl Wales, combined data for 2005/06 to 2007/08 Apparent method of killing of currently recorded homicide victims by ethnic appearance of victim: Engl Wales, combined data for 2005/06 to 2007/08 Stop search of persons under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984, other legislation, by ethnic appearance, 2007/8 Stop search of persons under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984, other legislation, by self-defined ethnicity, 2007/8 Stop search of persons under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984, other legislation per 1,000 population aged 10 over, by police force area ethnic appearance, 2007/8 Stop search of persons under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984, other legislation per 1,000 population aged 10 over, by police force area self-defined ethnicity, 2007/8 Percentage of stop search under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984, other legislation by reason for search ethnic appearance, for selected police force areas, 2006/7 2007/8 Percentage of stop search under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984, other legislation by reason for search self-defined ethnicity, for selected police force areas, 2006/7 2007/8 Percentage of stop search under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984 other legislation resulting in an arrest, by police force area ethnic appearance, 2006/7 2007/8 Percentage of stop search under s1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984 other legislation resulting in an arrest, by police force area self-defined ethnicity, 2006/7 2007/8 Stop search of persons under s60 of the Criminal Justice Public Order Act 1994, by police force ethnic appearance, 2007/8 Stop search of persons under s60 of the Criminal Justice Public Order Act 1994, by police force self-defined ethnicity, 2007/8 vi

7 Table 4.6a Table 4.6b Table 4.7a Table 4.7b Table 4.8a Table 4.8b Stop search under s44 (1) (2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 by police force area ethnic appearance, 2006/7 2007/8 Stop search under s44 (1) (2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 by police force area self-defined ethnicity, 2006/7 2007/8 Stop search of vehicle occupants under s44(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 resultant arrests by ethnic appearance, selected areas, 2007/8 Stop search of vehicle occupants under s44(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 resultant arrests by self-defined ethnicity, selected areas, 2007/8 Stop search of pedestrians under s44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 resultant arrests by ethnic appearance, selected areas, 2007/8 Stop search of pedestrians under s44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 resultant arrests by self-defined ethnicity, selected areas, 2007/8 Table 4.9 Stop account, by police force area ethnic appearance, 2006/7 2007/8 Table 4.10 Table 5.1a Table 5.1b Table 5.2a Table 5.2b Table 5.3 Table 5.4a Table 5.4b Table 5.5a Table 5.5b Table 5.6 Table 5.7 Table 5.8 Table 5.9 stop accounts per 1,000 population aged 10 over, by police force area by ethnic appearance, 2006/ /8 arrests for notifiable offences, by police force area ethnic appearance, 2007/8 arrests for notifiable offences, by police force area self-defined ethnicity, 2007/8 arrests for notifiable offences per 1,000 population aged 10 over, by police force area ethnic appearance, 2007/8 arrests for notifiable offences per 1,000 population aged 10 over, by police force area self-defined ethnicity, 2007/8 Note: not included in this year s publication due to data quality issues, but table numbering has remained consistent with previous years publications. Percentage breakdown of those arrested for notifiable offences, by ethnic appearance, offence group police force area, 2007/8 Percentage breakdown of those arrested for notifiable offences, by self-defined ethnicity, offence group police force area, 2007/8 Percentage breakdown of those arrested for notifiable offences by ethnic appearance, police force area age group, 2007/08 Percentage breakdown of those arrested for notifiable offences by self-defined ethnicity age group, selected police force areas, 2007/08 Number of persons cautioned for notifiable offences by ethnic appearance police force area, 2007 Cautions for notifiable offences in 2007 expressed as percentages of arrests in 2007/08 for notifiable offences by police force area ethnic appearance Number of persons cautioned for notifiable offences by ethnic appearance age group, selected police force areas, 2007 Number of persons cautioned for notifiable offences by offence group ethnic appearance, selected police force areas, 2007 vii

8 Table 6.1 Table 6.2 Table 6.3 Table 6.4 Table 6.5 Table 7.1 Table 7.2 Table 7.3 Table 8.1 Table 8.2 Table 9.1 Table 9.2 Table 9.3 Table 9.4 Prosecutions for indictable offences at magistrates courts by outcome ethnic appearance of defendant, selected areas, 2007 Persons sentenced for indictable offences at magistrates courts by outcome ethnic appearance of defendant, selected areas, 2007 Persons tried for indictable offences at the Crown Court by outcome ethnic appearance, selected areas Engl Wales, 2007 Persons sentenced for indictable offences at the Crown Court by outcome ethnic appearance of defendant, selected areas Engl Wales, 2007 Persons sentenced for indictable offences at the Crown Court by outcome, offence type ethnic appearance, 2007 Percentage of offences dealt with by Youth Offending Teams by offence group self-defined ethnicity, selected areas Engl Wales, 2007/08 Pre-court decisions for offences where defendants are aged between by decision self-defined ethnicity, selected areas Engl Wales, 2007/8 Sentencing for offences committed by year-olds by self-defined ethnicity, selected areas Engl Wales, 2007/8 Percentage of persons starting court order supervision by the Probation Service, by self-defined ethnicity area, 2007 Percentage of persons starting pre- or post-release supervision by the Probation Service, by self-defined ethnicity area, 2007 Population in prison establishments by self-identified ethnicity, gender, British Nationals all Nationalities, 30 June Prison population by self-defined ethnicity, type of prisoner, age group, offence group sentence length, 30 June 2008 Sentenced prisoners by court sentencing area, received into prison establishments, by ethnicity, year ending March 2008 Sentenced prison receptions by offence type self-defined ethnicity, year ending March 2008 Table 10.1 Police recorded ethnicity of complainant, 2007/08 Table 10.2 Table 11.1 Table 11.2 Table 11.3 Outcome of completed allegations of discriminatory behaviour by police force area, 2007/08 Deaths in or following police custody by ethnicity, gender, age cause of death; Engl Wales, 2007/08 Self-inflicted deaths in prison by self-identified ethnicity, gender, age cause of death, 2007/08 Deaths in prison resulting from natural other causes by self-identified ethnicity, gender, age cause of death, 2007/08 Table 12.1 Police Service staff by ethnicity, as at 31 March 2008 Table 12.2 Prison Service staff by ethnicity, as at 31 March 2008 viii

9 Table 12.3 Note: not included in this year s publication due to information currently being unavailable, but table numbering has remained consistent with previous years publications. Table 12.4 Crown Prosecution Service staff by ethnicity, 2007/08 Table 12.5 Employment in the Criminal Justice System, 2007/08 App. A1a App. A1b App. A2a App. A2b Appendix B Estimated population aged 10 over, by ethnic origin police force area, mid 2007 Estimated population aged 10 over, by self-identified ethnicity police force area, mid 2007 Estimated population aged 10 over, percentage by ethnic origin police force area, mid 2007 Estimated population aged 10 over, percentage by self identified ethnicity police force area, mid 2007 Correspondence of ethnic classifications ix

10 Executive Summary General Findings This report provides details of how members of the Black Minority Ethnic (BME) community in Engl Wales are represented in our Criminal Justice System. As a statistical publication, it does not aim to provide a detailed commentary on the figures. Instead it seeks to collate information provided by CJS agencies on BME representation. Based on this material it can be seen that there are nearly eight times more stops searches of Black people per head of population than of people (see Chapter 4), there are four times more arrests of Black people per head of population than of people (see Chapter 5), there are five times more Black people in prison per head of population than people (see Chapter 9). Many Criminal Justice Agencies are, however, employing proportionately more people from BME communities. For example, the Police Service Prison Service have increased the proportion of their staff from BME communities over the past years, members of BME communities accounted for 7% of all Police Staff 6% of all Prison service staff in 2007/08. The Office for Criminal Justice Reform in the Ministry of Justice is working to ensure agencies collect the data they need to enable more effective ethnic monitoring. Providing detailed statistics on the experiences of BME communities in our Criminal Justice System is an essential step towards ensuring justice for all. Table A shows the proportion of each ethnic group in the resident population aged ten over, the ethnic breakdown of those at different stages of the criminal justice process. Where the proportion of an ethnic group at a stage in the criminal justice process is higher than the corresponding proportion in the general population, there is disproportionality they are over-represented at that stage in the criminal justice process. Table A: Percentage of ethnic groups at different stages of the criminal justice process compared to the ethnic breakdown of the general population, Engl Wales 2007/08 General population (aged 10 & 2001 Census Ethnicity Mixed Black Asian Chinese or Other Not stated/ Unknown Stops searches (1) Arrests (2) Cautions (2)(3) Youth offences Tried at Crown Court (3)(4) * 100 Court ordered supervision by probation service (5) Prison receptions (6) Note: Figures may not add to 100% due to rounding. (1) Stops searches recorded by the police under section 1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984 other legislation. (2) Notifiable offences. (3) The data in these rows is based on ethnic appearance, as such does not include the category Mixed ethnicity (the data in the rest of the table is based on self-identified ethnicity). (4). Information on ethnicity is missing in 19% of cases; therefore, percentages are based on known ethnicity. (5) Commencements (6) Sentenced. x

11 Specific Findings Victims Homicide The latest British Crime Survey (BCS) estimates that there were around 207,000 racially motivated incidents in 2007/8. This compares with a total of 184,000 incidents reported by the 2006/07 BCS. However, as with most crime, the majority of racial incidents are not reported to the police. During 2007/08, 57,055 racist incidents were recorded by the police, a decrease of 7% over 2006/07. There were 38,327 racially or religiously aggravated offences in 2007/08, a 10% decrease from the previous year (42,554 in 2006/07). Two thirds (66%) of these were offences of harassment. The clear-up rate for racially or religiously aggravated offences has improved slightly over the last four years (39% in 2007/08, compared to 38% in both 2005/6 2006/7 37% in 2004/05). The police recorded 2,228 homicides in the three-year period ending March Eleven per cent of homicides in this period were of Black people, 8% of Asian people 3% of Other minority ethnic groups. Twenty-six per cent of Black victims died from shooting, compared to 4% of victims 8% of Asian victims. Twenty-one homicides were recorded as being racially motivated over the three-year period to March Stops by the Police The police recorded 1,035,438 stop searches of people under section 1 of the Police Criminal Evidence Act 1984 other legislation in 2007/08. This is an increase of 8% on 2006/07, is the highest figure since 1998/9. Of the searches carried out in 2007/08, 13% were of Black people, 3% of people of Mixed ethnicity, 8% of Asian people 1% of people of Chinese or Other ethnic origin. There were nearly eight times more stops searches of Black people per head of population than of people. There were twice as many stops searches of Asian people per head of population than of people, a similar rate to the previous year. The main reason for conducting a stop search under these powers across all ethnic groups was for drugs, as was the case in 2006/07. A total of 117,278 searches of people were made under the Terrorism Act 2000 in 2007/08 compared with 37,197 in 2006/07, an increase of 215%. The large rise in the number of stop searches made under the Terrorism Act largely reflects increases in the use of this power by the Metropolitan police. The number of times where the police required people to stop account for themselves was far greater than that for stop search in 2007/08 (2,353,918 compared to 1,035,438). For Engl Wales, there were two a half times as many stop accounts of Black people per head of population than of people. In contrast, the rate for Asians was similar to that for people. xi

12 Arrests Cautions In 2007/08, 1,475,103 people aged over ten were suspected of committing a notifiable offence arrested. Of these arrests, 7% were recorded as being of Black people, 3% of people of Mixed ethnicity, 5% Asian 1% Chinese or Other ethnic origin. There were 3.8 times more arrests of Black people per head of population than of people (compared with 3.6 times the previous year). In terms of offence groups for which they were arrested, the main differences between ethnic groups were that arrests for robbery fraud forgery involved a greater proportion of Black people than average, arrests for fraud forgery involved a greater proportion of Asian people than average. The police cautioned 350,492 persons for notifiable offences in Of these, 6% were recorded as Black people, 5% Asian 1% of Other ethnic origin. There was a lower use of cautioning for Black offenders relative to arrests (16%) compared with offenders (24%). Prosecutions Sentencing Ethnicity was recorded in only 22% of the magistrates court data supplied to the Ministry of Justice for cases in Engl Wales for 2007, a marginal improvement on the previous year. Combining information collected from nine police force areas on magistrates court decisions in 2007 shows that, 63% of, 57% of Black 47% of Asian defendants were found guilty. However this data should only be treated as being indicative of the 9 areas reporting not of the picture for Engl Wales. In 2007 ethnicity was recorded in 81% of the Crown Court cases, similar to 82% in the previous year. A greater proportion of defendants (78%) were found guilty than Black (75%) or Asian (73%) defendants. However, custodial sentences were given to a greater proportion of Black offenders (67%) those in the Other category (68%) than (53%) or Asian offenders (57%). Youth Offending In 2007/08, 277,986 offences involving offenders aged between were notified to dealt with by Youth Offending Teams in Engl Wales. In 85% of the offences, the young people involved identified themselves as, 6% as Black, 3% as Asian, 4% as Mixed ethnicity less than 1% as Chinese or Other ethnicity. Of the 89,554 pre-court decisions in 2007/08, 86% involved people, 4% involved Black people, 3% Asian people, 2 % people of Mixed ethnicity less than 1% of Chinese Other ethnicity. For pre-court decisions, people of Mixed ethnicity were more likely to attract a final warning intervention than people of other ethnic groups. xii

13 Offences committed by Black young offenders were more likely to receive a custodial sentence when compared to offences committed by the other ethnic groups. Probation In 2007 Black offenders accounted for 6% of those commencing court orders, followed by Asian (5%), Mixed (2%) Chinese or Other ethnicity (1%), the same as last year. There is however great variation across probation areas, which to some degree, reflects the ethnic minority composition of the resident population. For Engl Wales in 2007, those starting pre- or post-release supervision by the National Probation Service (NPS) had a higher proportion of people from BME groups (21%) compared with those starting court order supervision (15%). Prisons In June 2008, members of BME groups accounted for 27% of the total prison population of 83,194 (including foreign nationals). For British Nationals, the proportion of Black prisoners relative to the population was 6.8 per 1,000 population compared to 1.3 per 1,000 for persons. Similarly there were more people from Mixed ethnic backgrounds in prison per head of population (3.7 per 1,000) than people. In contrast, people from Chinese or Other ethnic backgrounds had the lowest rate of imprisonment with a rate of 0.5 per 1,000 population. The rate for people from Asian groups was higher than for persons but lower than that for the Mixed or Black groups at 1.8 per 1,000 population. Among adult sentenced prisoners, 67% of the Black offenders, 60% of Asian offenders, 59% of Mixed ethnicity offenders 47% of the Chinese or Other ethnicity offenders were serving a sentence of four years or more compared with 54% adult sentenced offenders. Complaints In 2007/08, 29,893 people made complaints about the conduct of individuals serving with the police; 7% of complaints made against the police were from Black people, 6% from Asian people, 1% from Other minority ethnic groups, while 62% were made by people. As the ethnicity of the complainant is unknown in 24% of cases, care should be exercised when using these figures. A total of 1,284 allegations of discriminatory behaviour were finalised in 2007/08, of which 11 were substantiated. In 2007/8 the Prison Probation Service Ombudsman received 89 complaints on race issues in the Prison Service. Nineteen (21%) of the 89 cases met the eligibility criteria for consideration. xiii

14 Deaths in Police Custody In 2007/08, three of the 21 deaths of people who had been arrested or otherwise detained by the Police involved people from BME groups. Practitioners in the Criminal Justice System In most criminal justice agencies there have been increases in the employment of people from BME groups in recent years. For example, in 2007/08, 4% of all police officers 7% of all police staff were from BME communities, 6% of all Prison service staff, 15% of CPS staff were from BME communities. For other criminal justice agencies, there was an extremely broad range of proportions of BME staff employed. Although most agencies are either close to or have exceeded a proportion of BME representation similar to that in the general population, the majority of BME staff were employed in relatively junior positions. xiv

15 Chapter 1. Introduction Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 states that: The Secretary of State shall in each year publish such information as he considers expedient for the purpose of facilitating the performance of those engaged in the administration of justice to avoid discriminating against any persons on the ground of race or sex or any other improper ground. The Race Relations Act 1976, as amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, gives public authorities a statutory general duty to eliminate unlawful discrimination promote race equality good race relations. The Act requires authorities to take account of monitor the impact of services policies on ethnic minorities. Further information guidance for criminal justice agencies employers is available on the equality human rights commission website at The Home Office Ministry of Justice have published a series of documents since 1992 on the issue of race within the Criminal Justice System under these requirements. For the period up to 2006 this information can be found on the Home Office web site at html for publications since 2006, this information can be found on the Ministry of Justice web site This report, under the auspices of the Office for Criminal Justice Reform in the Ministry of Justice continues the series. It brings together statistical information on the representation of Black Minority Ethnic groups as suspects, offenders victims within the Criminal Justice System on employees within the criminal justice agencies. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts, police forces other agencies. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure the limitations of these data are taken into account. The basic statistical information in this document should be considered in conjunction with research reports that are now available on related issues. Most of these reports are now published on websites of the different justice agencies: for example: The Home Office website, The Crown Prosecution Service website, in particular the diversity impact assessments at The Ministry of Justice Website, 1

16 The Youth Justice Board Website, This report does not attempt to relate its figures to risk factors that many commentators consider are drivers of offending, which may differentially affect BME communities. For commentary of this type the reader is referred to other research reports: e.g. those produced by the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee ( Information in this publication is presented in a variety of ways: a) Tables covering all police force areas or equivalents for courts prisons. b) Detailed tables for the ten police force areas with the highest Black Minority Ethnic population (Bedfordshire, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Metropolitan, Nottinghamshire, Thames Valley, West Midls West Yorkshire). Just over three-quarters of the Black Minority Ethnic population of Engl Wales live in these police force areas. c) Where data collection is still being developed, the tables cover those areas able to supply information. For example, for magistrates courts information is shown for the nine police force areas with most complete ethnicity data (Avon Somerset, Dorset, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northumbria, Nottinghamshire, Wiltshire Gwent). d) Some summary tables for Engl & Wales are presented showing only the national picture, for example, the information on criminal justice practitioners is presented in this way. This report is available on the following website: The population figures used in this report were derived from the 2001 Census which showed that nationally 2.8% of the general population were Black, 4.7% Asian 1.2% of Other minority ethnic group. The Census also provided statistics on the ethnic populations for each police force area. Absolute populations for each ethnic group were calculated using these proportions the annual 2007 mid-year estimates for the total population in each police force area produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Further information on population estimates is available at: In particular the most recent experimental estimates of the minority populations from 2001 to 2007 can be found at Guidance on the collection classification of ethnic group statistics is available at Comparisons with the resident population figures in some tables in this report need to be treated with caution. This is because police records show the area in which persons are, for example, stopped or arrested, rather than where they reside. The two do not necessarily correspond this is particularly the case for the City of London Police where the residential population is very small. For this reason, in many tables in this report the figures for City of London police have been amalgamated with the Metropolitan 2

17 police force area treated as one. Also as the resident population figures rely on estimates of the BME population based on the ethnicity breakdown of the population from the 2001 Census they may under (or over) estimate the numbers of people from BME groups in the population. Data are presented in terms of calendar financial years other periods, reflecting the reporting cycles data collection of the agencies contributing information for this publication. Revisions Statistics are by their nature subject to error uncertainty. Initial estimates are often systematically amended to reflect more accurate complete information provided by data suppliers. Where any revisions have been made to previously published data, it is noted at the foot of the relevant tables in this report. 3

18 Chapter 2. Developments in ethnic monitoring This chapter outlines developments in ethnic monitoring within the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Some further detail is contained in subsequent chapters. For more than thirty years, those concerned with improving race relations have stressed the need to collect accurate information about the ethnicity of people in contact with the CJS as well as the need to supplement such data with more detailed research. The principle of ethnic monitoring is accepted by all parts of the CJS in Engl Wales. However, progress has been affected by the lack of IT systems providing regular ethnic data, the success or otherwise in disseminating information regarding changes in requirements for ethnic monitoring to the relevant people in some agencies. This Chapter describes the programme of work currently being undertaken by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) to improve the statistics currently published on race the CJS under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act Census Classification The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 the 2001 Census have all been stimuli for wider improved monitoring of BME groups. Following the Census, Ministers agreed that ethnic monitoring throughout the CJS should be based upon self-assessment the 16-point Census categories. The date for implementation was set as 1 April The aim of this was to provide a single common system for collecting ethnic data in all agencies, consistent with the demographic information available from the Census. Progress towards implementing the collection of ethnicity statistics using the 16+1 classification has occurred at different rates with differing degrees of accuracy completeness across CJS agencies. Work continues to improve the position. This report uses a mix of 16+1 self assessment data where quality allows (condensed into 5+1 categories of, Mixed, Black, Asian Other for ease of analysis in some places see Appendix B), of the 4+1 visual appearance classification system where this is more robust for the time period covered. Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 All criminal justice agencies have a statutory general duty to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to promote race equality good race relations under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act The Act places a specific duty on agencies to establish Race Equality Schemes also to monitor progress in relation to these schemes. Further information is contained in the sections below. 4

19 Racist incidents/crimes Information on racist incidents crimes is collected annually by Her Majesty s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) from all police forces on the basis of a common accepted definition: A racist incident/crime is any incident/crime which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person (as recommended by The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in 1999). On 30 September 1998, the Crime Disorder Act 1998 introduced new racially aggravated offences covering assault/wounding, criminal damage harassment. These offences are monitored as part of the stard criminal statistics returns. Religiously aggravated offences have been included with racially aggravated offences in recorded crime figures since CPS staff gather information on cases that the police have identified as racist crimes as defined by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry criteria also on those cases that their staff consider meet the criteria but have not been so identified by the police. From 1 April 1999, the CPS has additionally monitored racially aggravated offences since December 2001, has collected statistics on religiously aggravated offences. Since 1988 the British Crime Survey (BCS) has included a question on the ethnicity of respondents provides the main measure of racist crime. Ethnic boosts have been used to increase the accuracy of findings for Black Minority Ethnic groups. The 16-point classification was first used for the 2001/2 sweep of the Survey. Police Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 led to new measures to establish consistent ethnic monitoring within the police service. Ethnic monitoring of stop searches, arrests, cautions homicides began during 1995/6, ethnic monitoring of all deaths in police custody started from 1 April Initially monitoring was based upon the police officer s visual perception of the ethnic appearance of the suspect/victim, using four categories (, Black, Asian Other ). From 1 April 2003, in addition to the visual assessment using the 4-point classification, it has been matory for all police forces to record ethnicity by self-assessment by the suspect using the 16-point classification used in the 2001 Census. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report highlighted the effect of stops by the police on police community race relations, made a number of recommendations designed to ensure the powers were exercised in a way which would be as effective as possible in reducing crime, which would also promote trust confidence in minority ethnic communities. As a consequence, following a number of pilots, from 1st April 2005, police forces in Engl Wales began matory recording of the ethnicity of all people stopped asked to account for themselves by 5

20 the police (in addition to those stopped searched). The nature of the requirement to record ethnicity for stop account was altered in response to Recommendation 24 of Sir Ronnie Flanagan s Review of Policing 1, following pilots during From 1 January 2009, police officers are only required to record the self-identified ethnicity ( not the ethnic appearance) of the individual asked to stop account. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) The CPS records the ethnicity of all defendants in all proceedings using the 16-point classification identifies the outcomes for each of the ethnic groups recorded. However, the CPS are reliant on ethnicity data collected by the police. The CPS conducted Equality Diversity Impact Assessments (EDIA) of statutory charging for These update extend previous EDIAs conducted on charging decisions taken in , demonstrate similar patterns in charging in the areas of gender ethnicity. The assessments were prepared so that the CPS could fulfil its statutory obligations to take positive steps to ensure CPS core activities, including charging, do not produce unjustified disproportionality in relation to race, disability gender. The CPS Single Equality Scheme commits the CPS to monitoring analyzing its charging activities in the form of an equality impact assessment in order to be in a position to effectively deliver on these statutory obligations. In both , there were one or two data quality issues to do with ethnicity but conclusions can still be drawn. The assessments found there was no variation of charging decision by the main ethnic group of the suspect except that non- suspects were slightly less likely to receive a decision to No Prosecution on evidential grounds. The variation in charging decision by ethnic classification was greater for female cases than for male cases. It is unclear as to why this is the case is being investigated further in the forthcoming EDIA. The proportion of cases classified as charged rose in due to better data recording. It is likely that this increase occurred because cases previously recorded as not known or not recorded outcomes have now been recorded as charged. The reports are published at Courts For magistrates courts, data on all court appearances have been sent to the Ministry of Justice 2 either through direct data transfer from the court s computer or through returns completed by police forces. Because of the variety of IT systems used in courts the Home Office initially only received data with an ethnic marker from courts using the ICL system ( Equis in Northamptonshire). Data were first published for 1999 for 4 police force areas; 9 areas are included for Ethnicity was recorded in 22% of the magistrates court data for Engl Wales supplied to the Ministry of Justice for 2007, up from 20% in Prior to May 2007, data were sent to the Home Office. 6

21 Further improvements are in h. OCJR, together with colleagues in Her Majesty s Courts Service (HMCS), National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA), Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Equalities Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has developed a data hling protocol on the collection, recording transmission of ethnicity data to improve the completeness of ethnicity data on court proceedings at both magistrates the Crown Court. This protocol was disseminated in April 09, OCJR, together with EHRC will be monitoring progress in the completeness of ethnicity data on court proceedings. All magistrates courts now have the new Libra case management system, fully rolled out across Engl Wales by December 2008, which includes the ability to record both the visual self-assessment ethnicity of the defendant. The Ministry of Justice now uses Libra data to monitor ethnicity. This coupled with the recent introduction of a data hling protocol on the collection, recording transmission of ethnicity data should improve the completeness of ethnicity data for magistrates courts. At the Crown Court the presence of a national IT system (CREST) has made monitoring easier. All Crown Court centres were asked to include information on ethnic origin on all new cases received from October 2001 based upon information included in case papers. The CREST system has been amended to accept both 4-point 16-point classifications. Data were received on the ethnicity of 81% of all persons tried at the Crown Court in 2007, little changed from the 82% of the previous year. Information from 22 Crown Court centres was sufficiently complete to allow publication, the same number as in Youth Justice Board (YJB) Youth Offending Teams management information systems use the 16-point ethnic classifications from the 2001 census to monitor the ethnicity of young offenders dealt with. These are amalgamated into five categories for reporting to the YJB, for presentation in this report, i.e., Mixed, Black, Asian, Chinese Other (see Appendix B). Outcomes measured include offences committed by young people, pre-court decisions made sentences given. In 2004/5, the YJB introduced a performance indicator on race equality, that is: All Youth Offending Teams should have an action plan in place to ensure that any difference between the ethnic composition of offenders in all pre-court post court disposals the ethnic composition of the local community is reduced year on year. To monitor progress, the YJB has collated data broken down by ethnicity for numbers of offenders compared with numbers of all young people aged 10-17, reported back to YOTs on 2006/7 2007/8 data compared with 2005/6. From 2008/9, this indicator has been included as one of the 198 National Indicators for Local Authorities Local Authority Partnerships Further information on data from Youth Offending Teams is contained in the Youth Justice Annual Workload Data 2007/08 (available at Regional statistics are also available at this web link. 7

22 National Offender Management Service (NOMS) NOMS has responsibility for probation prisons is committed to continuing to improve ethnic monitoring in both areas. Probation In recent years the National Probation Service (NPS) has made good progress in improving its monitoring of the ethnicity of offenders under supervision the focus now is to maintain this improved quality. This is the second year that all the probation areas have submitted returns for court order commencements with less than ten per cent of the ethnic codes missing. For pre- post-release supervision, two areas failed to achieve this level of accuracy, the same as in Prisons The first comprehensive BME monitoring system introduced into the CJS was for the prison population, with the first data published in This showed a level of representation well above the general population levels. The data collected were determined by a combination of self-assessment by the prisoner observation by a prison officer. The categories used were similar to those used in official surveys such as the European Union Labour Force Survey. From 1992 to February 2003 the nine-point 1991 Census classification system was used to collect information on the ethnicity of prisoners. Information based on this ethnic breakdown of the prison population has been published annually since Since 1993 the nationality of prisoners has also been collected. Since March 2003 all prisoners received into a penal establishment for the first time, existing prisoners transferred to another establishment, have been asked to self-classify their ethnicity using the 2001 Census categories. Prisons now record the ethnicity of virtually all prisoners using this classification system. Since 2003 monitoring systems have been developed to meet the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 to provide accurate timely information that is used to drive management action in prison establishments. The SMART system was made available nationally in 2005 its use has been matory in public sector prisons since April SMART applies range-setting principles to assist in monitoring the outcomes of functions or policies by ethnicity gives an indication of whether the presence of disproportionality means that action or further investigation is required. The software was further developed during 2007 SMART II has now been rolled out to all public private sector establishments. It is more user-friendly offers increased functionality, including the capacity to monitor trends over time. The new software has brought the capacity to aggregate data to provide regional national ethnic monitoring figures for key functions, reports on this data are now used by managers at all levels to identify disproportionality. These developments are described in detail in Race Review 2008, available at gov.uk/abouttheservice/racediversity/raceequality/. NOMS is committed to further work to improve 8

23 monitoring systems, both on methods of data capture on improved IT systems. These plans are set out in Promoting Equality in Prisons Probation: the NOMS Single Equality Scheme available at Human resources Monitoring of staff resources has been introduced by all criminal justice agencies. The data presented in this report are based on staff self-assessment. There are some issues regarding the correct interpretation of the 16-point classification its implementation. Although there has been an improvement this year, some agencies still have further progress to make in reducing the amount of information recorded as unknown. Developing Statistics on Race the Criminal Justice System The statistics published under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 are one of the main sources of information available on race the CJS. However they have developed incrementally. Following an independent review of the data currently collected, OCJR is leading a programme of work to improve the statistics published on race the CJS. To ensure that the programme of work addresses the diverse needs of the data users OCJR held a twelve week consultation exercise during autumn 2006 with a range of stakeholders including community groups, practitioners, policy makers academics. To address both national local needs, there was a consensus that OCJR should take forward a national programme to equip local areas with the tools to collect better ethnicity data support Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs) to take a strategic lead in using promoting information about their local areas. A key part of this work is the development of a Minimum Dataset (MDS) which maps out clearly for the first time the management data that needs to be collected to performance manage the CJS in relation to race. The primary aim of the MDS is to enable practitioners policy makers to: identify disproportionality in the CJS; begin to underst the causes of disproportionality; performance manage the CJS in relation to race issues; The MDS operates as a specification of the minimum data that Local Criminal Justice Boards need to underst the experiences of the CJS by suspects, defendants offenders from the various ethnic groups. The dataset includes information on key decision points within the CJS is configured in such a way that an assessment of disproportionality can be made through a comparison of the ethnicity breakdown of the inputs outcomes at each point. It is accompanied by guidance on data interpretation, governance taking actions to address identified disproportionality. The pilot phase was completed, national roll-out began during

24 The MDS is linked with a new Public Service Agreement which requires local criminal justice agencies working though Local Criminal Justice Boards to: identify explain race disproportionality at key points within the CJS have strategies in place to address racial disparities which cannot be explained or objectively justified Further background to this work can be found using the following links: The Root Branch Review of Race the CJS Statistics: Final Report (April 2005) branch%20review.pdf The Government s response to the Root Branch Review: statistics%20that%20drive%20change.pdf The table of the review s recommendation the Government s response: to%20recommendations.pdf 10

25 Chapter 3. Victims Homicide Introduction People seek the services of criminal justice agencies for various reasons. The most obvious is to notify the police of a crime. This chapter looks at the experience of victimisation with particular reference to racist incidents, racially religiously aggravated offences including the number of persons cautioned or prosecuted - homicide. Wherever possible the latest findings from the British Crime Survey (BCS) other sources have been reported. Victimisation The BCS is a large-scale face-to-face household survey in Engl Wales asking about people s experience perceptions of crime. It also records, amongst other things, whether a victim of crime perceived it to be racially motivated. Up to including the 2007/08 BCS children aged under-16 were excluded. However, the BCS is being extended to include children aged 10 to 15 from April Since peaking in 1995, BCS crime has fallen the risk of becoming a victim of crime is down from 40% in 1995 to 22% based on the 2007/08 BCS (Kershaw et al, 2008). According to the 2007/08 BCS, 28% of people in the Mixed ethnic group, 23% of those in the Asian 22% in the, Black Chinese Other groups were victims of crime in the 12 months prior to interview. However, none of these differences between the groups were found to be statistically significant. The risk of becoming a victim of any BCS crime fell for people from the Mixed Black ethnic backgrounds from 36% to 28% 27% to 22% respectively between the 2006/ /08 BCS. In both cases the decrease is statistically significant. It should be noted that differences in the risk of victimisation between ethnic groups may be at least partly attributable to factors other than ethnicity. Previous research (Jansson, 2006; Salisbury Upson, 2004) has shown that people with a Mixed ethnic background are most at risk of crime. However, multivariate analyses (based on the 2005/06 BCS) identified that for the key crime types ethnicity was not independently associated with the risk of victimisation. For example for violent crime, other factors such as being young, male, marital status (being separated, divorced or single) living in an area with high levels of perceived anti-social behaviour were strongly associated with the risk of victimisation (Jansson et al., 2007). These analyses indicated that the differences between the ethnic groups reflect differences in the socio-demographic profiles of the groups rather than ethnicity itself. In particular the proportion of young people in the Mixed ethnic group is large in comparison to other ethnic groups young people are at a higher risk of victimisation (Kershaw et al., 2008). Based on the 2007/08 BCS people from Asian Black ethnic groups had higher levels of worry about burglary (Asian Black, both 25%), car crime (Asian, 22%; Black, 27%) violent crime (Asian, 35%; Black, 32%) than other groups. However, decreases in the levels of worry about all three crime types were statistically significant for the Asian Chinese Other ethnic groups, between the 2006/ /08 BCS. 11

26 Definitions of Racist Incidents Racially or Religiously Aggravated Offences All police forces have collected information on racist incidents from 1986 on the basis of a common definition. This definition was changed in 1999 when the police adopted the proposed definition from the report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person (Macpherson 1999) It should be noted that incidents included here are wider than the normal definition of a crime in published crime statistics include general threatening behaviour. Sections 28 to 32 of the Crime Disorder Act 1998 introduced into law the concept of specific racially aggravated offences. The provisions came into effect on 30 September They were further extended to include religiously aggravated offences by section 39 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime Security Act 2001, with effect from 14 December An offence may be defined as racially or religiously aggravated if: at the time of committing the offence, or immediately before or after doing so, the offender demonstrates towards the victim of the offence hostility based on the victim s membership (or presumed membership) of a racial or religious group; or the offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility towards members of a racial or religious group based on their membership of that group. Membership, in relation to a racial or religious group, includes association with members of that group. Presumed means presumed by the offender. Main Findings Racists Incidents: Table 3.1 The overall number of racist incidents recorded by the police in Engl Wales decreased by 6.9% from a peak of 61,262 in 2006/07 to 57,055 (Table 3.1). Around two-fifths of forces registered an increase in the number of incidents. Three police force areas registered increases in racist incidents greater than 25% (Derbyshire, City of London Suffolk), while four police force areas registered a decrease greater than 25% (Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire, Wiltshire Gwent). Research from across the UK indicates that the majority of racist incidents recorded are either damage to property or verbal harassment (Maynard Read, 1997;Clark Moody, 2002;Jarman, 2002). 12