Assaults carried out by young people in custody
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Last updated 2 March 2018 - see all updates
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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2015/16, there was an average of about 16 assaults per 100 White young people in custody per month, compared with 24 assaults per 100 young people from all other ethnic groups combined
Things you need to know
The data counts every incident of assault regardless of whether the same individuals are involved in those incidents. Some individual young people may be involved in repeated incidents of assault, so they will be included in the data more than once. In addition, each incidence of assault will involve 2 or more individuals. All of the individuals involved in each incidence of assault, regardless of whether they’re assailants, victims or fighters, will be included in the data. Keep these factors in mind when interpreting results.
The data received from young offenders' institutions doesn't show if an incident involved people from the same or different ethnic groups.
Rates based on a larger number of people are generally more reliable. The larger number of White young people in custody means that estimates for this group are more reliable than estimates for people from all other ethnic groups combined.
What the data measures
This measures the rate of assaults carried out by young people in custody, broken down by ethnicity. Each assault a young person in custody carries out is counted and their ethnicity is recorded.
The rate shown is the average number of incidents per 100 young people per month.
The data is based on all assault incidents, but does not include information about staff or visitors who may have been victims, or otherwise involved.
'Young people’ and 'young offenders' are aged between 10 and 17 years. The data may also include some 18 year olds.
The ethnic categories used in this data
Because the number of young people involved in incidents was too small to draw any firm conclusions based on specific ethnic categories, the data is broken down into the following 2 broad categories:
- White – White ethnic groups (including White British and White ethnic minorities)
- Other – all other ethnic minorities
2. Assaults per 100 young people in custody by ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Number of incidents per 100 young people in custody per month | Average population in custody | Average number of assaults per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | 16.2 | 766.4 | 124.3 |
| Other | 24.1 | 524.0 | 126.3 |
Download table data for ‘Assaults per 100 young people in custody by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Assaults per 100 young people in custody by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Assaults carried out by young people in custody Assaults per 100 young people in custody by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2015/16, there were about 16 assaults per 100 White young people in custody per month, compared with 24 assaults per 100 young people from all other ethnic groups combined
3. Methodology
Young people self-report their ethnicity. Staff working in secure training centres and young offender institutions then record this information on an administrative system.
The numbers of young people in custody are counted at the beginning of each month, updated to include new admissions during the month, and then averaged across a 12-month period.
Ethnicity figures do not include data where ethnicity is unknown.
Rounding
Values have been rounded to 1 decimal place.
Quality and methodology information
4. Data sources
Source
Youth Justice Statistics Supplementary Table 8.15
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Ministry of Justice
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Youth justice data is used by the government to develop, monitor and evaluate criminal justice policy for young people in custody. It reports on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales, giving information for the latest year and also longer-term trends.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, value, denominator, numerator