This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Young black men in London are disproportionately more likely to be prosecuted for breaking public dispersal orders available to police as part of a range of measures to crack down on antisocial behaviour.

Research produced by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies looked at a range of powers given to councils and police in 2014 and found that they had resulted in almost 1,000 young adults being prosecuted in two years.

One of these, the controversial dispersal power, allows police to ban individuals from an area for 48 hours if they believe there is a risk of antisocial behaviour. The order must be signed by an inspector or above but does not have to be consulted on more widely before coming into effect.

Anyone in breach of an order can be prosecuted and fined up to £2,500 or imprisoned for up to three months.

The research, based on more than 800 freedom of information requests to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), local councils and police forces, found a huge variation in the way that the dispersal orders and two other antisocial behaviour measures were being applied.

The centre asked about prosecutions against 18- to 25-year-olds between the introduction of the new rules and December 2016.

The figures, published in a report called Antisocial Behaviour Powers and Young Adults: the data, show that in that period 940 young adults were prosecuted for breaching one of the three orders.

Figures from the MoJ showed that in London, young people who identified as being of black African heritage accounted for 31% of those aged 18 to 25 years old prosecuted for breaching dispersal orders, even though they only account for 9% of those living in the capital.



Of the 133 young adults prosecuted, 41 were black African, 40 were male and in the remaining case the gender was not specified.



Outside London the picture was different, with young adults of a black African background accounting for 1.2% of the young adult population and making up 4% of prosecutions.

The figures represent only the final stage in the use of the powers; the centre said it had been unable to find out if there was a similar pattern in the numbers of people moved on from areas because these details were not collected centrally.

Helen Mills, senior associate at the centre, said: “It is deeply concerning that we found disproportional numbers of young black men being prosecuted for breaching dispersal powers in London, yet the government isn’t keeping tabs on how these measures are being used.”

Mills said the lack of a central record of every time the powers were used made it impossible for the government to explain racial disparities in criminal justice.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Outside London young adults of a black African background accounted for 17% of prosecutions. Photograph: Alamy

The other powers looked at in the research were community protection notices and public space protection orders (PSPOs). These can be used by councils and other agencies to prohibit certain activities and again can result in prosecution if breached.

PSPOs have attracted particular controversy because of some councils’ use of them against rough sleepers or people who are begging.

Researchers looked at prosecution rates amongst young adults in England and Wales for the three powers and found significant differences between areas.

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Young adults in Norfolk were three times more likely to be prosecuted than those in Greater Manchester or the West Midlands, with 39 prosecutions representing 47 in every 100,000 people in that age group.

The highest rate, and third highest number, of prosecutions was in Durham, where 97 young adults were taken to court – a rate of 145 per 100,000.

Commenting on councils’ use of these powers, Simon Blackburn, chair of the Local Government Association’s safer and stronger communities board, said many antisocial behaviour offences were serious issues for local residents and businesses, and councils were keen to protect them from offenders.

“Councils will take a proportionate approach to using the tools at their disposal to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour,” he said. “Crime and antisocial behaviour varies from place to place and that is why councils, who know their areas best, are responding in different ways.”