Youth Justice News
| Author | Tim Bateman |
| Published date | 01 August 2022 |
| Date | 01 August 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14732254221112980 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14732254221112980
Youth Justice
2022, Vol. 22(2) 232 –242
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14732254221112980
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Youth Justice News
Tim Bateman
Eighty-Three Per Cent of Children in England Whose
Offending Was ‘Prolific’ Were Eligible for Free School Meals
A statistical report published by the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education,
in March 2022, provides detailed information on the educational and social care back-
grounds of children who received a formal sanction for offending in England. The analy-
sis considers all children who commenced formal primary education between 2002/2003
and 2004/2005 and who received a caution or conviction for an offence when aged
between 10 and 17 years inclusive. A cut-off for inclusion was imposed at school Year 13
for each year cohort ‘to ensure that each child had the same amount of time to offend’. The
analysis identified a total of about 77,300 such children, equivalent to 5 per cent of school
students in that age range over the relevant period.
As might be anticipated, children who had been formally sanctioned for offending were
much more likely to be male than the wider pupil population, with boys accounting for
just over three-quarters (76%) of those receiving a caution or court sentence. Black and
mixed heritage children were also overrepresented in the former group by comparison
with the overall student population; as indicated in Table 1, Asian children were, by con-
trast, underrepresented.
Corresponding author:
Tim Bateman
Email: tim.bateman@ntlworld.com
1112980YJJ0010.1177/14732254221112980Youth JusticeBateman
other2022
News
Table 1. Children receiving a formal disposal for offending by comparison with the wider pupil cohort, by
ethnicity.a
Ethnic group Proportion of all students Proportion of children receiving a
formal youth justice sanction
Asian 8% 4.7%
Black 4.5% 6.4%
Mixed heritage 3.9% 6.1%
White 81% 80%
aFigures do not sum to total because the ethnic group of some children was unclassified.
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