Thread by @EssexBarrister

Black people are OVER-CRIMINALISED throughout our criminal justice system.

Black history month may be over but our conversations should not be.

A THREAD.

Black people are OVER-POLICED.

Black people are stopped and searched at a rate of 38 per 1000 people

...which compares to a rate of just 4 per 1000 people.

ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-…

Black people are also arrested at a higher rate.

Black people are arrested at a rate of 32 per 1000 people

...which compares to a rate of just 10 per 1000 people.

ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-…

Unsurprisingly, we see a disproportionately high number of black people in court as defendants.

In a profession where black people are UNDERREPRESENTED, particularly at the senior end (only 1.1% of QCs are black & only 1.1% of judges)... there is a huge power disparity.

Black people (grouped here under the term BAME) are more likely to go to prison than their white counterparts.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Black people (and Asian people) receive longer sentences than their white counterparts.

ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-…

Again unsurprisingly (given the above) Black people are hugely OVER-REPRESENTED in prison.

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04…

For an excellent book on mass incarceration of black people (written about the US criminal justice system) I recommend Michelle Alexander’s book ‘The New Jim Crow’.