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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Aamna Mohdin Community affairs correspondent

Watchdog calls for end to ‘adultification’ of black children by police in England and Wales

Community members protest in Hackney, east London, in 2022 after a 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by police.
Community members protest in Hackney, east London, in 2022 after a 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by police. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

The police watchdog for England and Wales has called for urgent measures to stop the “adultification” of black children by officers, but campaigners have said the revised guidelines do not go far enough.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct identified adultification as a racial bias that primarily affects black children as well as other minority ethnic children, where they are seen as more “streetwise”, more “grown up”, less innocent and less vulnerable.

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