Current Responses to Youth Racially Motivated Offending

This article presents the findings from a study for the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to identify the prevalence of racially motivated offending (RMO) amongst young people and Youth Justice System responses to it. The article focuses on programmes for RMO and presents the findings of a survey of Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) and secure establishments to establish the extent of provision for RMO, along with interviews with practitioners and young people. The findings demonstrate the majority of provision is multifaceted but also ad hoc and does not address the evidence on the causes of RMO. The multiplicity of causes needs to be reflected in the interventions designed to tackle it.