Let's get it right: race and justice 2000 - Nacro

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structures for youth justice are crucial areas in which AreaCommittees can play a strong coordinating role. Similarly,the Council and ACJLCs can give a lead on implementingthe Human Rights Act at local level.Race issues must become embedded in the routineagendas of Area Committees, so that the implications areconsidered, whatever the topic under discussion. Thediscussions at senior levels on ACJLCs must be turnedinto action at local and police divisional areas.Area Committees are not well known in theircommunities. They need to adopt a higher profile, andtake a lead in providing information about the localcriminal justice system, how it works, how to complain,how it is accountable to the community. The WestMidlands ACJLC, for example, has published a statementof commitments to race equality from each agency. OtherACJLCs are to publish reports based on the NACROaudits of their work on race issues.At present, Area Committees have no access to resources oftheir own. This needs to be resolved, either by memberagencies pooling funds or seconding staff, or by setting abudget at national level. Some resources are needed so thatACJLCs can undertake pieces of work such as inter-agencytraining, user surveys, or local research or a public event.Race Relations ForumIn May 1998, the Home Secretary announced a new 28member Race Relations Forum to give people fromminority communities a new channel of communication togovernment. It is chaired by the Home Secretary, JackStraw, who said:‘In this country we enjoy many benefits that lifein a multi-cultural society has brought. Much hasbeen achieved. But society is constantlydeveloping and it is vital that we respond tochanges.’Ensuring a fair and non-discriminatory system of justicewill, it is hoped, be a priority for the Forum.Aims and objectives ofthe criminal justice systemIn December 1998, the Home Secretary, the LordChancellor and the Attorney General issued a publicstatement setting out for the first time joint aims andobjectives for the criminal justice system. These include astrong commitment to fairness and justice; one of the twooverarching aims is:‘… to dispense justice fairly and efficiently and topromote confidence in the rule of law’. (‘StrategicPlan for the Criminal Justice System’)Eight objectives support these aims, three of which areparticularly relevant to this report:nnnto meet the needs of victims, witnesses and jurorswithin the system;to respect the rights of defendants and to treat themfairly; andto promote confidence in the criminal justice system.Together with the Human Rights Act, this provides astrong conceptual basis for a fresh approach to achievethe Home Secretary’s aim:‘Fairness of treatment must be right at the heart ofany criminal justice system.’ACTION POINTSnnnnCriminal Justice Consultative Council must give a new lead to Area Criminal Justice LiaisonCommittees on work on race.Crime and Disorder Act, Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report and Human Rights Act must setagenda for Area Committees.Area Committees must raise their profiles in local communities and ensure channels ofcommunication are open.Home Office and Lord Chancellor’s Department must provide more resources to enable ACJLCSto be more proactive at local level.12
CHAPTER4Research andethnicmonitoringResearchThe 1992 report from NACRO’s Race Issues AdvisoryCommittee, ‘Race Policies into Action’, reviewed keyresearch findings about race and criminal justice, andconcluded:‘Because of the mixed results and the differingmethods of the research that has been carried out, itis difficult to identify the extent of discrimination inthe criminal justice system, or the points at which itoccurs. However, the examples above tend tosuggest not that black people are more prone tocommit crime, but that when they do, they are likelyto be treated more harshly, and to receive lessfavourable treatment at the points in the processwhere there is discretion as to further action. Thecumulative effect of this is the grosslydisproportionate black prison population.’Black people are still disproportionately found in theprison population, compared to the general population. In1997, 18% of the men and 25% of the women in prison –almost one in every five prisoners – came from a minoritygroup. Even when foreign nationals are excluded fromthese figures, 14% of men and 16% of women in prisonin 1997 were from minority groups. 10% of maleprisoners and 13% of women prisoners were black,compared to 1.7% of black people over 10 years of age inthe general population.There is no evidence to show that black people commitmore crimes than white people, or to suggest that thisaccounts for the over-representation of racial minoritypopulations in prison. A Home Office research study onself-reported offending among young people found littledifference between patterns of offending among youngwhite and young African Caribbean people, for example.In 1992 a major research study by Dr Roger Hood, whichwas the most thorough and rigourous ever conducted inthis country, looked at what happened at the Crown Courtstage of the criminal justice process.‘Race and Sentencing: A Study in the Crown Court’,looked at the sentences passed in 3,317 cases heard infive Crown Courts in the West Midlands. It found thatwhen a range of over 100 possible legally relevantvariables had been taken into account (previous offences,for example) black defendants stood between five and 8%greater overall chance of an immediate prison sentence13
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BIBLIOGRAPHYBland et al (1999), ‘
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NACRO Race Issues Advisory Committe
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