Through providing legal representation to children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system, we see police powers being used on children, which fail to respect their rights and are traumatic and damaging. This includes the use of Taser and strip-searching and holding children for long periods of time, often overnight, in police cells. There is also racial disproportionately. Black children are disproportionately represented across all areas of policing and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children are also more likely to overrepresented but official data is often lacking.
Human rights law is clear that children in contact with the criminal justice system must be treated differently because of their unique situation – children have distinct vulnerabilities, greater developmental needs and evolving capacities. The 2015 National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) national strategy for the policing of children and young people also emphasises that:
“It is crucial that in all encounters with the police, those below the age of 18 should be treated as children first. All officers must have regard to their safety, welfare and wellbeing as required under [...] the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
In its new children’s strategy, which Just for Kids Law positively influenced, the NPCC similarly states that: child centred policing “treats those under 18 years old as children, respecting and recognising their needs, vulnerabilities and diversity, irrespective of presentation.” Yet despite this, we still see harmful police powers being widely used on children.
In the year ending March 2024, Tasers were used on children 2,900 times – 5 on children under 11 years. This includes drawing, aiming, red dotting and discharging. Of this number, 66 were discharged. Children have told us that being threatened with a Taser is a terrifying experience.
A recent report by the Children’s Commissioner for England revealed that 650 children aged 10-17 were subjected to a strip search between 2018 to 2020. 95% of the searches were on boys and 58% of the boys being searched had their ethnicity recorded as Black.
Every year thousands of children are detained in police custody. In the year ending 2023, 54,875 children (aged 17 and under) were detained in police cells, 42% of these children (23,047) were detained overnight. 17% of children detained overnight were Black.
Drawing on our experience of working directly with children and young people, our policy and influencing work aims to secure a major shift and culture change in the treatment of children by the police - to make sure that children have their rights respected in their interactions with the police, alongside ensuring that action is taken to address racial disproportionality.
Read more about our campaign to end overnight detention of children in police custody and our briefing. ‘It’s horrible when they keep you there at night’: Ending the overnight detention of children in police custody
Read more about children’s rights and Taser in our briefing, published by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, which is part of Just for Kids Law.