A 32-page report produced by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast for the Department of Justice notes that 63 per cent of children in custody in 2018/2019 self-identified as Catholic.

By comparison, the 2011 census found that Catholics made up just 46 per cent of the Northern Ireland population aged from 10 to 17 years old. There are no reliable figures for 2018/2019.

The high proportions have been linked to “structural and historical factors, operational factors, attitudinal and interactional factors”.

However, the report warns that there is not enough data to make a conclusive finding of “over-representation” except in areas of sex and age, in which it found that older male children were over-represented in the criminal justice system.

Responding to the report, justice minister Naomi Long acknowledged its conclusion that there “are more children from a Catholic community background in the youth justice system than would be expected based on their share of the population”.

She noted that there was a similarly high proportion of Catholic children being admitted to secure care centres, “[which] emphasises that this isn’t only an issue for the justice system and that deprivation is highly likely to be an underlying feature in both cases”.

The minister added: “To address the issues identified in the research report fully, we have to deal with the causes of differential representation of children in the justice system, namely the deprivation-linked vulnerabilities that lead to offending behaviour in children.

“Justice alone cannot address those vulnerabilities and I have written to the communities, health and education ministers to make them aware of the research and its findings and seek support for appropriate action from their departments.”