Single separation incidents for young people in custody
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Incidents involving young people in custody.
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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2017/18, there was a lower rate of single separation incidents (where a young person is locked alone in a room) among White young people in custody compared with young people from all other ethnic groups combined
- every year between 2010/11 and 2016/17, the rate of single separation incidents for White young people was higher than for young people from all other ethnic groups combined
- 2017/18 was the first year during the 8 years covered that the rate of single separation incidents was lower for the White ethnic group compared with all other ethnic groups combined
Things you need to know
The circumstances are different for each single separation incident. You should avoid simple conclusions or direct comparisons between ethnicities or institutions.
The data counts every single separation incident. Some young people may be involved in repeated incidents, in which case they will be included in the data more than once. This means that the rates per 100 young people should be considered with some caution.
The data does not include young people in custody whose ethnicity wasn’t known.
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 (the ‘rate’).
A single separation incident is when a young person in custody is locked alone in their bedroom or other area as a way to control them.
The data includes young people being held in:
- young offender institutions
- secure children’s homes
- secure training centres
'Young people’ are 10 to 17 years old. The data may also include some 18 year olds.
For each financial year covered, the data in the table shows the:
- average rate of single separation incidents per 100 young people in custody per month
- average number of single separation incidents in custody per month
If a young person has multiple restrictive physical interventions, each one is counted as a separate incident.
The ethnic categories used in this data
The number of young people involved in restrictive physical interventions was too small to make reliable generalisations about 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 than White | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | White Number of single separation incidents per 100 young people per month | White Average number of single separation incidents per month | Other than White Number of single separation incidents per 100 young people per month | Other than White Average number of single separation incidents per month |
| 2010/11 | 66.2 | 276.9 | 59.9 | 94.9 |
| 2011/12 | 59.7 | 240.1 | 44.0 | 83.3 |
| 2012/13 | 52.2 | 187.4 | 22.8 | 38.6 |
| 2013/14 | 48.3 | 168.1 | 19.1 | 31.3 |
| 2014/15 | 37.2 | 101.5 | 29.6 | 46.2 |
| 2015/16 | 58.7 | 152.0 | 39.6 | 51.6 |
| 2016/17 | 103.3 | 216.4 | 75.0 | 77.8 |
| 2017/18 | 94.7 | 211.8 | 95.9 | 106.5 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Single separation incidents for young people in custody By ethnicity Summary
A single separation incident is when a young person in custody is locked alone in their bedroom or other area as a way to control them.
This data shows that:
- in 2017/18, there was an average of 94.7 single separation incidents per 100 White young people in custody per month, compared with 95.9 per 100 people per month for young people from all other ethnic groups combined
- between 2010/11 and 2016/17, the rate of single separation incidents for White young people had been consistently higher than for those from all other ethnic groups combined
- 2017/18 was the first year where White young people had a lower rate of single separation incidents than those from all other ethnic groups combined
- the rate per 100 White young people fell between 2010/11 and 2014/15, and then rose from 37.2 to 94.7 between 2014/15 and 2017/18
- the rate per 100 young people from all other ethnic groups combined fell between 2010/11 and 2013/14, and then rose from 19.1 to 95.9 between 2013/14 and 2017/18
3. Methodology
Young people report their own ethnicity. Staff working in secure training centres and young offender institutions then record this information.
The numbers of young people in custody are counted at the beginning of each month. They are updated to include new admissions during the month, and then averaged across a 12-month period.
Rounding
Percentages have been rounded to 1 decimal point. Due to this, some figures may not add up to 100. Counts have been rounded to the nearest whole number. All calculations have been made using unrounded figures.
See the Youth justice statistics for 2017/18 for unrounded figures and the percentages calculated from them.
Related publications
Quality and methodology information
Further technical information
Figures published before the release of the 2017/18 youth justice statistics may have been revised since their original publication.
4. Data sources
Source
Youth Justice statistics: 2017 to 2018
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Ministry of Justice
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The data is used by the government to develop, monitor and evaluate criminal justice policy for young offenders in England and Wales.