Research to establish if and why Catholic children more likely to be detained in Northern Ireland
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Research commissioned by Northern Ireland’s Youth Justice Agency (YJA) will establish “if and why” children and young people from a Catholic background are more likely to be detained in custody.
Around three-quarters of young offenders held in Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre are from a Catholic background, according to the agency’s own statistics.
In 2019, Northern Ireland’s commissioner for children and young people, Koulla Yiasouma, called on the agency to “find out why this is the case and then develop a plan on how to reduce this”.
Justice minister Naomi Long confirmed this week that the YJA has commissioned researchers at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) to examine “if and why there is any over-representation of particular groups of children (including religious background) within the youth justice system”.
She added: “This over-representation in the youth justice system research is expected to be published during 2022.”
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