Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody
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Last updated 14 August 2018 - see all updates
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1. Main facts and figures
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in 2015/16, White young people in custody (including White ethnic minorities) had a lower rate of restrictive physical interventions per 100 people per month, compared with young offenders from all other ethnic groups combined
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in 5 out of 6 years during the period studied, the rate of restrictive physical interventions for White young people was lower than for young people from all other ethnic groups
Things you need to know
The reasons why a young person in custody may have their movement or mobility restricted are likely to be different for each incident.
You should therefore be careful about comparing the experiences of different ethnic groups based on the figures shown here.
The data on ethnicity is taken from an administrative system. As with all large administrative data sources, some inherent inaccuracy may exist.
What the data measures
This data measures the average number of ‘restrictive physical interventions’ per 100 young people in custody per month in each year covered, broken down by two broad ethnic groups.
A restrictive physical intervention is the use of force on a young person in custody, with the aim of restricting their movement or mobility.
The data includes young offenders being held in:
- young offender institutions
- secure children’s homes
- secure training centres
'Young people’ and 'young offenders' are aged between 10 and 17 years. The data may also include some 18 year olds.
If a young offender has multiple restrictive physical interventions, each one is counted separately.
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. Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody by ethnicity
| White | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | White Average number per month | White Rate per 100 young people per month | Other Average number per month | Other Rate per 100 young people per month |
| 2010/11 | 364.6 | 19.1 | 231.3 | 23.8 |
| 2011/12 | 387.9 | 22.5 | 312.3 | 30.0 |
| 2012/13 | 324.6 | 23.5 | 213.1 | 24.8 |
| 2013/14 | 298.3 | 29.1 | 176.9 | 28.2 |
| 2014/15 | 223.7 | 25.8 | 179.2 | 32.6 |
| 2015/16 | 192.8 | 25.2 | 168.2 | 32.1 |
Download table data for ‘Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
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in 2015/16, White young people in custody (including White ethnic minorities) had a rate of 25.2 restrictive physical interventions per 100 people per month, compared with 32.1 per 100 people per month for young people from all other ethnic groups combined
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between 2010/11 and 2015/16, the rate of restrictive physical interventions for White young people was lower than for young people from all other ethnic groups combined in every year except 2013/14
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in the same period, the rate of restrictive physical interventions increased for White young people, from 19.1 in 2010/11 to 25.2 in 2015/16 (per 100 young people per month); the rate peaked in 2013/14, at 29.1 per 100 young people per month
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in the same period, the rate also increased for young people from all other ethnic groups combined, from 23.8 in 2010/11 to 32.1 in 2015/16 (per 100 young people per month); the rate peaked in 2014/15, at 32.6 per 100 young people per month
3. Methodology
Young people self-report their ethnicity. Staff working in secure children’s homes, secure training centres and young offender institutions then record this information on an administrative system.
Restrictive physical interventions are measured as the number per 100 young people in custody. 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.
Further technical information
Data received from the establishments through monthly returns is validated through a reconciliation process on an annual basis.
Figures published before the release of the 2015/16 Youth justice statistics may have been revised since their original publication.
4. Data sources
Source
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 offenders. 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: Measure, Time, Ethnicity, Value, Denominator, Numerator