Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody
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Last updated 14 May 2019 - see all updates
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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2016/17, White young people in custody had a lower rate of restrictive physical interventions (where their movement or mobility is restricted) per 100 young people in custody per month, compared with young people from all other ethnic groups combined
- between 2010/11 and 2016/17, the rate of restrictive physical interventions for White young people was lower than for young people from all other ethnic groups in 6 out of 7 years
Things you need to know
Simple conclusions or direct comparisons between ethnic groups should be avoided, because the circumstances are different for each restrictive physical intervention.
The data counts every restrictive physical intervention. Some individual young people may be involved in repeated restrictive physical interventions, so they will be included in the data multiple times. This means that the rate per 100 young people in custody per month should be considered with some caution.
What the data measures
This data measures the average number of ‘restrictive physical interventions’ per 100 young people in custody per month (the rate) in each year covered, broken down by 2 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 people being held in:
- young offender institutions
- secure children’s homes
- secure training centres
'Young people’ are aged between 10 and 17 years. The data may also include some 18 year olds.
For each financial year covered, the data in the table shows the:
- average number of restrictive physical interventions in custody per month
- average rate of restrictive physical interventions per 100 young people in custody per month
The ethnic categories used in this data
The number of young people involved in restrictive physical interventions was too small to draw any firm conclusions based on specific ethnic categories. Therefore, 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. By ethnicity
| White | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | White Rate per 100 young people per month | White Average number per month | Other Rate per 100 young people per month | Other Average number per month |
| 2010/11 | 19.1 | 365 | 23.8 | 231 |
| 2011/12 | 22.5 | 388 | 30.0 | 312 |
| 2012/13 | 23.5 | 325 | 24.8 | 213 |
| 2013/14 | 29.1 | 298 | 28.2 | 177 |
| 2014/15 | 25.8 | 224 | 32.6 | 179 |
| 2015/16 | 25.0 | 192 | 32.0 | 168 |
| 2016/17 | 29.8 | 195 | 35.8 | 182 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Restrictive physical interventions involving young people in custody By ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2016/17, there was an average of 29.8 restrictive physical interventions per 100 White young people in custody per month, compared with 35.8 per 100 people per month for young people from all other ethnic groups combined
- between 2010/11 and 2016/17, 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
- in the same period, the rate of restrictive physical interventions per 100 White young people increased from 19.1 in 2010/11 to 29.8 in 2016/17; the rate for 2016/17 was the highest rate in all 7 years covered by this data
- in the same period, the rate per 100 young people from all other ethnic groups combined also increased, from 23.8 in 2010/11 to 35.8 in 2016/17; the rate for 2016/17 was the highest rate in all 7 years covered by this data
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.
The rate of restrictive physical interventions is measured as the average number per 100 young people in custody per month. 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.
The data does not include young people in custody for whom ethnicity wasn’t known.
Rounding
Rates per 100 young people have been rounded to 1 decimal place.
Related publications
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 2016/17 Youth justice statistics may have been revised since their original publication.
4. Data sources
Source
Youth Justice annual statistics: 2016 to 2017
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: Measure, Time, Ethnicity, Value, Denominator, Numerator