“They Should Know Better”: The Dangerous Impact of Adultification in the Criminal Justice System

Imagine a 14-year-old caught in a difficult situation, struggling at school, living in a chaotic home environment, perhaps vulnerable to exploitation. Now, imagine how differently that child might be treated depending on their race. For too many Black and minority ethnic children in the UK, that is the reality: the Criminal Justice System doesn’t see a child in need of support; it sees a young adult who “should know better”.

This is the reality of adultification.

“Adultification 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.” 

It is not just about language or behaviour; rather, it is about the pivotal consequences for those children. Many children who are subjected to adultification are statistically more likely to be stopped and searched, prosecuted, and imprisoned and overall are less protected in the Criminal Justice System. Cases over the years have shown how adultification can show up in subtle but harmful ways. The case of Child Q highlights just that. In December 2020, a 15-year-old Black girl was strip-searched by Metropolitan Police officers at her school in Hackney, east London, after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis. No drugs were found. She was menstruating at the time. No appropriate adult was present. Teachers stood by. One of the officers involved later said they believed they were “doing the right thing”.

Child Q was not seen as a vulnerable schoolgirl; she was treated as if she were dangerous, deceptive, and undeserving of basic safeguarding. This explicitly demonstrates how adultification plays out in real time. Child Q is one of many incidents, criminal practitioners daily dealing children  who have been treated as adults by the Criminal Justice System. It might be a teenage girl who has been groomed and exploited, but is described as making “lifestyle choices”. Or a Black boy treated by police as threatening or “street-savvy”, rather than as a frightened child. These perceptions influence the way children are policed, the decisions made by prosecutors, and the sentences handed down by the courts.

The statistics paint a stark picture. Black children make up just 4% of the general population aged 10–17, yet account for over 28% of children in custody. This reflects deep-rooted structural biases that have shaped and continue to shape how children are perceived and treated within the Justice System. A growing concern linked to adultification is the emerging trend of delaying charging decisions until a young person turns 18 or is on the cusp of adulthood. By waiting until they legally become adults, authorities can bypass youth justice protections, such as diversion schemes or sentencing considerations that account for age and maturity. This practice effectively denies the individual a child-centred approach, reinforcing the adultified perception that they are more culpable than they truly are.

Adultification does not only affect children who end up in Court. It is a wider issue: children in schools, in care, or stopped on the street are all at risk of being misread and misunderstood when adultification goes unchecked. Rather than receiving support or safeguarding, they are criminalised and blamed.

Adultification is a silent but powerful force, for it robs children of the chance to be seen as just children. Practitioners continue to raise vital awareness of this issue, but awareness alone is not enough. There is still much work to be done; we must commit to consistently and actively challenging adultification in everyday practice. Until it is recognised and challenged at every level of the Criminal Justice Process, the system will continue to fail the very people it is meant to protect.