Differential treatment in the youth justice system - Equality and ...

DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT IN THE YOUTH JUSTICE SYSTEM4.2 Adversarial policing/street controlThis style of policing emphasises the control and management of those who policeofficers believe to be most heavily involved in offending. It focuses simultaneously oncrime control and on the assertion of control over those who pose a challenge topolice authority. It is prevalent in high crime areas, but as we shall see, it is not theonly style of policing adopted in such areas. Where offending is concentrated – orbelieved to be concentrated – among particular groups, there is a tendency for thesegroups to attract differential police treatment.Stop and search tends to be enthusiastically embraced by officers adopting this typeof policing. Not surprisingly, given that the rationale is to demonstrate control over thestreets, the same small group of people who challenge police authority tend to be thefocus of police action. We formed the clear impression that in these areas the policepersistently stopped the same groups of young people, who were often known tothem by name. This style of policing tends neither to foster – nor to value – goodrelations with those who are policed in this way.4.3 Rule of law/procedural justiceWe observed adversarial styles of policing, to greater or lesser extent, in all fourareas, but few officers were committed exclusively to adversarial tactics. Officers inall four areas also exercised, to a greater or lesser degree, a more consensual styleof policing designed to secure greater commitment to the rule of law throughstrategies that valued procedural justice. Procedural justice entails treating all thoseinvolved in police interactions with decency and respect, and according to the rulesset out in law and in codes of practice (Tyler and Huo, 2002; Tyler, 2003, 2007;Jackson et al., 2009 in press). The ‘rule of law’ policing that we observed tended tobe characterised by:• strong leadership• good internal monitoring of arrests and stop and search encounters, and• placing value on a positive relationship with local residents and young people.This style of policing was particularly prevalent in Area C1, where we observed auniformed response team and a specialist young person’s inspector conducting a39