July 3, 2004: New Figures on Race and Criminal Justice

The latest edition of Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System has just been published.The Home Secretary compiles the statistics under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, which states that information which will help criminal justice staff avoid discrimination on the grounds of race, sex or any other improper ground must be published. The statistics are well worth reading in full. Amongst the main points for 002/03:

• Racist incidents recorded by the police fell by 11% to 48,525. 31,034 racially aggravated offences were recorded by police in 2002/03 (30,113 in 2001/02). About half of these were offences of harassment, including Public Order offences of threatening or disorderly behaviour.
• Just over 869,000 ‘stop and searches’ were recorded by police, of which, 14% were Black people, 7% Asian and 1% of ‘Other’ ethnic origin. Police forces varied widely in their rates for ‘stop and searches’.
• Relative to population, in 2002/03 Black people were 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people, compared with 5 times in 2001/02.
• In London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), compared with 2001/02, the number of ‘stop and searches’ rose by 30% for White people, 36% for Black people and 37% for Asian people. In England & Wales as a whole, there was an average rise of about 17% for White people, 38% for Black people and 36% for Asian people.
• An estimated 1.3 million arrests for notifiable offences took place, of which, 9% were of Black people, 5% Asian and 1% ‘Other’ ethnic origin. Compared with 2001/02 arrests of Black people rose by 7%, of Asian people by 8% and of White people by 2%. Black people were 3 times more likely to be arrested than White or those of ‘Other’ ethnic origin.
• In June 2002, Black and Minority Ethnic groups accounted for about 22% of the male prison population (15% Black, 3% Asian and 4% ‘Other’) and about 29% of the female prison population (24% Black, 1% Asian and 5% ‘Other’).
• 8% of complaints made against the police in 2002/03 were from Black people, 5% from Asian people and 2% from ‘Other’ minority ethnic groups.
• Black and Minority Ethnic groups are still under-represented in all grades in both the police and prison service, as well as in senior posts in all criminal justice agencies.

Progress has been made since Macpherson, but there is still a long way to go.