The Impact of Adultification Bias on the Met Police

On the 16th March 2022, I posted a trigger warning to my Instagram story, preparing to post what for many would be yet another provoking wake up call and what for many young black teens (especially young black girls in regards to this article) was unfortunately an every day reality. Angry and upset, I would go on to spam my story with screenshots of news articles, posts by several different accounts and my own little personal contributions. 

This story, although representing a wider issue that we all knew of, was one like I'd never seen before. I'd seen plenty of horror stories in the news, stories regarding the Met and other police forces. It had been two years since 2020. Two years since 14 year old me took it upon herself to learn about institutional racism and the 'bad guys' who were police officers. The 'bad guys' who were the Metropolitan police: the force that had been 'taking care' of me since I was born in London just over seventeen years ago. I'd been raised to be careful and vigilant growing up. From a young age, you learn that your darker non - white complexion will make you stand out. I didn't (and still don't) put my hands in my pockets in shops and I gave police officers and security guards no reason to be suspicious of me or me and my friends in our larger sized groups but post 2020, my understanding became deeper. I now not only understood that I had to be careful, but I knew exactly why. Although I knew that the threat they posed to minorities was not just because they were police officers acting on suspicions but because these suspicions were built on institutionalised racism, sexism and homophobia, my understanding of it had never been so thorough. No matter how well behaved or quiet I was, I could never be seen in the same way as my white counterparts. 

I knew what racism was and I knew that I couldn't keep being surprised by it. These stories had started becoming a norm for me and yet somehow, this story I was spamming my IG story with felt different.

It was a girl that looked just like me, she was also black and she was my age. At the time I discovered the incident, I too was preparing for my GCSEs and we both lived in London. I saw myself in this girl and so I wasn't sure how to feel when I began to process the headlines I would go on to read...

"Child Q: Black schoolgirl strip searched by police while on her period"

The story was that of 'Child Q' who, towards the end of 2020, at just 15 years old was strip searched by police officers (who did not work within her school, but whom were called to the 'incident') at her school in Hackney, following a report from teachers that she smelt of weed. At the time, Child Q was preparing for her GCSEs, sat in an important exam when she was taken out and escorted to a medical room to be met by police officers. They had decided that she was going to be searched and her mother was not contacted in advance. Left alone with two female police officers and no other adults present, what would happen in this room was nothing short of sexual abuse: 

• "Child Q was made to take her pad off, something so personal and exposed in such a way to strangers.” 
• “Child Q was racially profiled due to her being black and her extreme large head of locks.”
• “She was made to bend over spread her legs, use her hands to spread her buttocks cheek whilst coughing.” 
• “She was not permitted to use the toilet despite asking.”

Even after her bag, blazer, scarf and shoes were searched, no drugs were found. The strip search would lead to the exact same result, no drugs being found. As more and more details were released and updated news articles published, both rage and sadness poured out across various social media sites until they would then start pouring out into the streets leading to demonstrations and protests such as that beginning at Stoke Newington Police Station and ending outside Hackney Town Hall in which hundreds would participate. MPs were to discuss it in the House of Commons and UK influencers would repost detailed posts to share their distress too. The community of black people in London and in fact across the country were yet again united for the wrong reasons. 

As part of a review, Child Q was asked to comment on her own experience of the incident. She was able to bravely contribute a spoken and written reflection, of which some key statements are listed below:

“Someone walked into the school, where I was supposed to feel safe, took me away from the people who were supposed to protect me and stripped me naked, while on my period. 

“…On the top of preparing for the most important exams of my life. I can't go a single day without wanting to scream, shout, cry or just give up.” 

“I feel like I'm locked in a box, and no one can see or cares that I just want to go back to feeling safe again, my box is collapsing around me, and no-one wants to help.”

 “I don’t know if I’m going to feel normal again. I don’t know how long it will take to repair my box. But I do know this can't happen to anyone, ever again.”

 “All the people that allowed this to happen need to be held responsible. I was held responsible for a smell.” 

 “…But I’m just a child. The main thing I need is space and time to understand what has happened to me and exactly how I feel about it and getting past this exam season.” 

“…… I need to know that the people who have done this to me can't do it to anyone else ever again. In fact so NO ONE else can do this to any other child in their care.”

As I write this article, I so very wish that this piece was a reflection on the changes in the Met across the last three years and looking at the progress that had been made. I wish that Child Q's own wish for 'the people who have done this to [her]' not being able to do it to anyone else had come true. I wish that I was writing this article feeling confident and trusting in the London Metropolitan police force and believing that systematic reformation was truly possible.

That is not the case. 

On the 27th March, just yesterday, I came across a post by Sky News on the recent research done into child strip searches within the Met. The research, triggered by the incident involving Child Q, revealed that children as young as 8 years old were actively being strip searched. The report detailed approximately 3000 different situations involving minors whilst also revealing an 'ethnic disproportionality'. It revealed that black children were 8x as likely to be strip searched compared to the national population, whilst white children were 0.5x as likely compared to the same demographic. A truly shocking statistic. 

This leaves us with many, many questions.

How has it happened roughly 3000 times?

Why are children that young being strip searched?

What is the actual protocol, law and policy that is in place for these situations?

What happened to safeguarding?

What makes safeguarding black kids so different???

In reviewing the incident, researchers would come to find that racism did in fact play a key part in this incident. They themselves believed that had Child Q been a white 15 year old girl who smelled of cannabis, her treatment would have been very different and that rather than being treated like a criminal, she would have been treated like a child. 

I've taken out some parts that I believe to be key to give you a deeper insight to the report... 

Finding 8: Racism (Taken from the CHSCP Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review on Child Q )

5.63 Finding 8: Having considered the context of the incident, the views of

those engaged in the review and the impact felt by Child Q and her family,

racism (whether deliberate or not) was likely to have been an influencing

factor in the decision to undertake a strip search. 

5.65 The importance of this line of enquiry is starkly reflected in several events that

took place around the same time. Significantly, some six months prior, George

Floyd was tragically killed in the USA and there were repercussions around the

globe, including in the UK. It brought into sharp focus some of the negative

experiences that Black and Global Majority Ethnic communities can experience

when interacting with the police. Valid questions have been raised about

racism within the police and other agencies, the priority given to tackling this

and whether organisational commitment ever rises above the rhetoric. 

5.69 Indeed, the review and reference panel held a firm view that had Child Q not

been Black, then her experiences are unlikely to have been the same. This

view is broadly supported when looking at the disproportionality evidenced in a

previous inspection of custody suites in the MPS. Undertaken by HMICFRS

and HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 201829, this inspection found clear evidence

of a disproportionate approach in this area of practice. 

5.71 That said, one feature believed to have a significance to the experience of Child

Q is that of adultification bias. This concept is where adults perceive Black

children as being older than they are. It is ‘a form of bias where children from

Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities are perceived as being more

‘streetwise’, more ‘grown up’, less innocent and less vulnerable than other

children. This particularly affects Black children, who might be viewed primarily

as a threat rather than as a child who needs support’

5.72 A US study by Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality in 201731

found that Black girls as young as five years old were seen ‘as being less in

need of protection and nurturing compared to their white counterparts.’

Research also showed that Black girls were 2.7 times more likely to be referred

to the juvenile justice system, 2 times more likely to be disciplined for minor

violations at school and 20% more likely to be charged with a crime. Whilst a

US study, these experiences won’t be isolated there.

5.73 In reflecting on how adultification bias might have been evident in practice with

Child Q, this can be seen in the fact that she received a largely criminal justice

and disciplinary response from the adults around her, ‘rather than a child

protection response’. This firmly echoes the findings of Davis and Marsh,

202032. The review believes there to be a high level of probability that

practitioners were influenced in this regard. The disproportionate decision to

strip search Child Q is unlikely to have been disconnected from her ethnicity

and her background as a child growing up on an estate in Hackney.

From points 5.71 to 5.73, we are introduced to the idea of 'adultification bias' playing a role in the assault of Child Q. Adultification bias looks at the different treatment of black children (and other minorities, although focuses on the former) in which we are held to older and more mature standards than our white peers. Although a recent-ish term, scholars from the Georgetown Law Center argue that it traces back hundreds of years. Sure, it looks like extreme incidents like that of Child Q or perhaps the hyper-sexualisation of black teenage girls or even black girls as young as five, but it also refers to the every day language used around black kids.

'Mature' 'Streetwise' 'Brave'. 

Adultification bias is the result of a long history of systematic racism and the dehumanisation of black people, regardless of age. It's why black children as young as six years old were being sold as slaves whilst their white age mates were playing with dolls and learning how to read. According to George Mason University, roughly 'half of all slaves were under the age of 16 in the American South in the decades before the civil war'. Adultification bias is why society assumes that black children have to grow up faster. It's why society continues to see a growing rate in the criminal exploitation of black boys rather than early intervention and local support. It's why a group of young black boys playing in the local park may be seen as threats and potential members of a gang, whilst white boys the same age are clearly just in the park to hang out with mates. It is why in 2014, the world had to mourn Tamir Rice, who at just 12 years old, was shot by a police officer in the USA for holding a replica toy gun. It's why, in 2019, Child C from Waltham Forest was “deliberately knocked off a moped and then stabbed repeatedly" and when authorities argued his death to be 'unpredictable', it was found there were several instances to get Child C out of a potential life of crime and into a safer lifestyle. Child C was just 13 years old the first time he got involved with police officers but rather than the system getting involved, he was seen as a criminal. Several more incidents with the police made no difference and this dangerous perception would lead to his death 6 years later. The system had failed him. 

As aforementioned, adultification bias is not always explicit and so it is crucial that we look at both extremes of the implications of adultification bias and it's role within policing. A police officer should not have to have a young black boy in handcuffs for us to see something is wrong. A longer than usual glance at a black boy in his local area or a young group of black boys is more than enough to see how easy it is for those who are meant to be protecting us to forget that we are children in the first place. 

When a 12 year old black boy in Bromley forgot his train ticket in his coat at his grandma's house, he did not think that him and his 15 year older brother would end up being on national news.

Why?  Because the 12 year old would end up in handcuffs at the back of a police car, whilst his older brother would end up pinned against a wall with four ticket inspectors having their hands on his body and on his neck. For those of you who like me also grew up in London, you'll know what it's like to be on your way to school and realise you've misplaced your oyster or completely have lost it. You know what it's like to have to step on to a bus or train and inform the driver that you're waiting on a replacement. So why should have this story been any different?  

When society assumes that black children are automatically exposed to more mature experiences, we strip childhoods away. Suddenly, it becomes a privilege to have a genuine childhood and not have to worry about 'adult things'. The perception of black children shifts and it becomes a norm for a black child to have to grow up quicker. The reason why children are exposed to certain stuff must also be considered here. Would black African - American teens be as associated with drugs if it wasn't for a history of being exposed to Nixon's 'War on Drugs' campaign which left plenty black children without fathers? Why would a black child from East London know so much about gang violence compared to a white child from Surrey? This isn't the child's fault but the World around them. Children don't choose where they are born. In fact, a child doesn't choose what race they are born as and the experiences that they will be born into. So why should they be made to feel like they need to be more mature than others simply because of the colour of their skin? 

Institutional racism is not isolated to that within the Metropolitan police. We find it in the healthcare system, the social care system and even in our supposedly safe education system. All these institutions have something in common. They have a duty of care for human beings. A duty of care for children. A duty of care for black children and yet time and time again, we see this duty of care not being taken seriously, or we see these supposedly 'isolated incidents' and 'mistakes' take place. Mistakes that cost people's welfare and can even cost their lives. 

The recent release of the Casey Report, a report in which I will go into further detail on in the upcoming weeks, has re-triggered conversations about adultification bias and just how dangerous it truly is for black kids. This report can be backed by countless other conversations such as that of the hypersexualisation of black teenage girls, the unjust and clearly discriminatory sentences given out in court or even Runnymede's trust report on police officers based in UK school. All these issues are topics I plan to again address in the nearby future and all these things have common trends as well as issues amongst them, one of these issues yet again being adultification bias and the failure to see children as the young and innocent people they are.  

With ongoing conversations about police reform and the publication of the Met's 'Turnaround Plan', it is clear that people now see the need for change to happen. Reform which minorities have been campaigning about for years. A discussion on reform vs abolition is one that also continues to be happen, and although an abolitionist myself, whether it's reform or abolition, institutional racism must go. Adultification bias must go.

It is then, that black children will not be scared of police officers. 

It is then, that black children can finally enjoy their developing years. 

It is then that black children can finally be children. 

 

Sources: 

• https://news.sky.com/story/children-as-young-as-eight-strip-searched-by-police-as-report-shows-evidence-of-deeply-concerning-practice-12843297
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60807681
• Adultification of Black children negatively impacts their health: Recommendations for health care providers
• https://chscp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Child-Q-PUBLISHED-14-March-22.pdf
• https://news.sky.com/story/black-schoolgirl-strip-searched-by-police-while-on-her-period-12567414
• https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/20/it-can-never-happen-again-hundreds-gather-in-support-of-child-q
• https://www.met.police.uk/notices/met/casey-report/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adultification_bias
• https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/06/Academic-Insights-Adultification-bias-within-child-protection-and-safeguarding.pdf
• https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a39839580/adultification-black-children/
• https://www.instagram.com/p/CDB9h1lHT_v/?epik=dj0yJnU9NWM3RW5XZzNaWWVCNUU3cHFSWEYwTEQ2UmZldnRTb0smcD0wJm49bEZ4d0FzZk8xSGpzclBkN1lXSTRjUSZ0PUFBQUFBR1FqTHpF