Single separation incidents for young people in custody
Published
Last updated 1 August 2018 - see all updates
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Incidents involving young people in custody.
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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 higher rate of single separation incidents per 100 people per month, compared with young people in custody from all other ethnic groups combined
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between 2010/11 and 2015/16, the rate of single separation incidents for White young people was consistently higher than for young people from all other ethnic groups combined
Things you need to know
The reasons why a young person in custody may be locked in their room (or another room or area) without their permission are likely to be different for each single separation 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 ‘single separation incidents’ per 100 young people in custody per month in each year covered, broken down by two broad ethnic groups.
Single separation means that a young person in custody is locked in their bedroom or other area as a way to control them. The young person is locked in the room or area alone, without a member of staff.
'Young people’ and 'young offenders' are aged between 10 and 17 years. The data may also include some 18 year olds.
The data includes young people held in:
- secure children’s homes
- secure training centres
For each financial year covered, the data in the table shows the:
- average number of single separation incidents in custody per month
- average number of single separation incidents per 100 young people in custody per month
If a young person has multiple single separation incidents, each one is counted as a separate incident.
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. Single separation incidents for young people in custody by ethnicity
| White | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 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 | 276.9 | 66.2 | 94.9 | 59.9 |
| 2011/12 | 240.1 | 59.7 | 83.3 | 44.0 |
| 2012/13 | 187.4 | 52.2 | 38.6 | 22.8 |
| 2013/14 | 168.1 | 48.3 | 31.3 | 19.1 |
| 2014/15 | 101.5 | 37.2 | 46.2 | 29.6 |
| 2015/16 | 152.0 | 58.7 | 51.6 | 39.6 |
Download table data for ‘Single separation incidents for young people in custody by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Single separation incidents for young people in custody by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Single separation incidents for young people in custody Single separation incidents for 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 58.7 single separation incidents per 100 people per month, compared with 39.6 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 single separation incidents per 100 White young people has been consistently higher than for young people from all other ethnic groups combined
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the rate of single separation incidents per 100 White young people, which had been falling between 2010/11 and 2014/15, rose from 37.2 to 58.7 between 2014/15 and 2015/16
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the rate of single separation incidents per 100 young people from all other ethnic groups combined, which had been falling between 2010/11 and 2013/14, rose from 19.1 to 39.6 between 2013/14 and 2015/16
3. Methodology
Young people self-report their ethnicity. Staff working in secure children’s homes and secure training centres then record this information on an administrative system.
Single separation incidents 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 the following: ethnicity, year, value, denominator, numerator