Policy Process Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Policy Process Paper - Essay Example pts are presently being made to counteract the serious problems associated discrimination with youth justice and the following will explore how ending discrimination within the youth justice system can improve the overall operation of the criminal justice system. Discrimination is often described as the prejudicial treatment of others based upon certain real or perceived characteristics. It is generally done on the basis of race, colour, sex, age, language, sexual orientation, religion and disability. Negative terminology within the Youth Service System can lead to discrimination and ensuing levels of oppression towards youth. Labeling is a negative term which means defining someone based upon their appearance or behaviour (real or perceived). A young man with a Mohawk haircut could be labeled as a punk or skinhead solely based on the style of his hair. From a youth justice perspective, a young black man may be subject to more stops and searches by police, and be labeled as more likely to engage in crime, due to the colour of his skin (the UK’s Home Office reports that black and Asian men were more likely to be stopped and searched by police than their white counterparts, see Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System, 2006). Discrimination within the Youth Justice System can take a variety of forms. Visible minority youth (black, Asian or other) may be subject to more random police stop and searches, may be less likely to be cautioned by a magistrate and may face higher rates of incarceration. In a study commissioned to look at race and the criminal justice system – not solely the youth system – it was determined that although black residents account for 2% of the population aged 10 and over in England and Wales, their rates of incarceration stand at 12% of the total prison population. This is a whopping and disproportionate 600% increase relative to their total population size! Accordingly, black and Asians are more likely than whites to be