The continuing gap between the percentages of black and white people entering the criminal justice system (partcularly prisons), observed both in North America and in England and Wales, raises an old, but still very important question of whether the over-representation is the result of proportionately more black than white people committing offences or offences of a particular kind, or whether it is the result of racial bias in the administration of criminal justice. The data provided in this book shows that there were racial differences in the treatment of young offenders at each stage of the criminal justice process. However, that differential treatment could not be explained by significant racial differences in involvement in criminality.
