While the Black Lives Matter movement pushed this topic towards the forefront of public debate in Wales during 2020, the issue of race and the justice system has been a topic of great controversy and soul searching for as long as I can remember.
While a lot of the focus here tends to be on the United States – which has a long and bloody history of police brutality and racism going hand in hand with each other – it’s worth considering what’s happening here in more detail.
To put things in an overall perspective, at the end of 2020 about 5.6% of the Welsh population were from an ethnic background other than white*, though in some local authorities this is significantly higher – particularly Cardiff (20.1%), Newport (13.2%) and Swansea (8.5%).
* Defined as black, Asian, mixed-race and Other (including Chinese).
Except for tribunals, it’s clear the criminal justice system in Wales has a diversity problem, with people of colour under-represented in the police and courts and over-represented amongst the prison population.
Firstly, there’s the issue of under-representation. The reasons behind this are likely to be complex. It could include a mix of:
- A lack of visible role models, particularly at the higher levels of the police and courts.
- The usual barriers which prevent people from (all) disadvantaged backgrounds from taking up a career in law – namely the cost and length of study (Part II) as well as a lack of professional contacts (for things like internships).
- Stereotypes (i.e. magistrates are old white men – though in reality women make up the majority of Welsh magistrates) and peer pressure (i.e. POC police officers are “sell-outs”).
- Cultural differences at work, such as people of colour perhaps being more inclined to work in the health and social care sector (the NHS has a long history of recruiting from abroad more generally) instead of the criminal justice system.
- Pre-existing antagonism between the police and people of colour (such as racial profiling and stop and search) may put the latter off applying due to a deep-rooted lack of trust.
Recruitment drives may not be enough in itself. It may result in an uptick in new recruits, but it would take decades for recruits from non-white backgrounds to rise through the ranks and bring about a culture change from within. Some may well become disheartened by the experience and it results in a self-perpetuating cycle of under-representation.
In Wales, the fact people of colour are so heavily concentrated in only a few local authorities makes the task of boosting recruitment from under-represented communities even harder than in England. The economic and cultural disadvantage is likely to be more entrenched in exactly the communities where new magistrates, police officers and lawyers need to come from.
Additionally, Wales has limited powers over the criminal justice system or policing to make changes (Part I), though this will be addressed in later pieces.
The second issue is the over-representation of people of colour in the prison system.
While there have been several studies done on the numbers involved, there’s very little research into why. There are, however, a few pointers:
- POC men (particularly black men) are more likely to be held on remand than whites. The Lammy Review (2017) concluded that if people of colour were being deemed “more dangerous” for committing the same crimes as whites then the prison categorisation system should be reviewed1.
- POC men are more likely to plead “not guilty” which usually results in a longer prison sentence if a guilty verdict is returned2. The Lammy Review found that guilty pleas were linked to trust in the justice system, with those less trusting of the justice system more likely to plead not guilty3.
- Collective stop and search was linked to the misinterpretation of the behaviour of large groups of young POC men as being gang or drug-related.
- People of colour are much more likely to get a prison sentence for certain offences than whites – 2.4 times more likely for drug offences and 1.2 times for sexual offences4. People of colour were also over-represented amongst convictions for robbery, drug offences and weapons possession5.
1. The Lammy Review, (6 September 2017). An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the Criminal Justice System, Prisons, Chapter 5, p47. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/643001/lammy-review-final-report.pdf
2. Ministry of Justice (2016). Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales, p16.
3. The Lammy Review, (6 September 2017). An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the Criminal Justice System, Plea Decisions, Chapter 3, p25.
4. Ministry of Justice, (16th November 2016). Associations between ethnic background and being sentenced to prison in the Crown Court in England and Wales in 2015.
5. Ministry of Justice,(December 2019. Criminal justice quarterly statistics, outcomes by offence.
