A deep distrust of the police and a lack of youth opportunities fuelled the involvement of hundreds of “disempowered” children in last year’s riots across England, a report has found.
Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, said young people were not primarily motivated by “far-right, anti-immigration or racist views” or by online misinformation, contrary to what she called the “prevailing narrative”.
Instead, she said, many were driven by a hatred of police and saw the riots as a chance to retaliate. Others were “driven by curiosity or the thrill of the moment”.
De Souza told the Guardian she was concerned about the “dangerous” treatment of children who received “unusually severe” punishments as part of the robust crackdown on rioters ordered by Keir Starmer last summer.
Speaking beyond the riots, the children’s commissioner called for the criminal records of young people to be erased when they reach 18 for all but the most serious offences. In England and Wales, youth convictions remain on police computer systems permanently in almost all cases, meaning they can be disclosed years later to prospective employers.
Children as young as 11 were among thousands of people involved in unrest that flared across England in the days after the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July.
De Souza said: “The involvement of children in those riots and the reasons they told me they got involved raise some really serious questions about childhood in England and why our children feel so disaffected and disempowered.”
Axel Rudakubana, now 18, was jailed last week for a minimum of 52 years after pleading guilty to the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, as well as the attempted murder of eight other girls and two adults who tried to save them. He also admitted possessing a version of an al-Qaida manual and producing the deadly toxin ricin.
The disorder that began in Southport barely 24 hours after the fatal stabbings followed the widespread sharing of misinformation online about the identity of the suspect, falsely claiming he was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in Britain on a small boat and was on an MI5 watchlist.
De Souza, whose team interviewed 14 children charged in relation to the riots, said the false claims spread by far-right influencers “played a potential role” but did not drive their actions.
None of those interviewed claimed they were motivated by anti-immigration, racist or far-right beliefs, with several expressing their dislike of these types of views. Rather, they were driven by anti-police feelings and a lack of youth activities and job opportunities, according to De Souza.
“I thought I would hear far more about [far-right influencers like] Andrew Tate. That’s not what I heard at all,” she said. “There was quite a group of the children who were there because they hated the police and they were clear about that.”
These children – who included “star pupils”, army cadets and trainee electricians – saw the riots as “an opportunity to retaliate against the police” after previous bad experiences with officers and general community distrust, she said.
One of the children charged said they joined a riot after hearing that the police would be there. They said: “We went down to see what it was. There’s a tradition in [my city] of people versus police. We had an opportunity.”
The latest Ministry of Justice figures, released in December, show that 106 of the 916 people who appeared in court in connection with the riots were aged under 18.
Of the 485 people jailed by 2 December, nine were under the age of 18. Other youths were dealt with by rehabilitation orders and other non-custodial sentences.
Police data provided to the Guardian on Tuesday shows that 286 children and young people were among the 1,804 people arrested in relation to the riots as of 21 January. They included four 11-year-olds, 10 children aged 12, and 21 aged 13.
In her 36-page report, De Souza raises concerns about the “unusually severe and swift” charges and sentences of children, most of whom had never been in trouble with the police before.
Many had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the symptoms of which include impulsivity, difficulty in resisting temptation, and risk-taking behaviours. These factors “seem to have been largely overlooked” by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and judges, she said.
Some were given custodial sentences that “profoundly disrupted their lives at a crucial moment, rather than supporting them to make better decisions”.
Although police are advised to hold pre-arranged interviews with child suspects, some involved in the disorder said they were arrested at home or in public by teams of between six and 10 officers. Many were held in police cells for between 48 and 72 hours, in breach of Home Office convention that says long periods in custody can be harmful to children.
De Souza said it was important to take public disorder seriously but that the severe response “calls into question the greater purpose of our youth justice system, which should offer not just punishment but also rehabilitation”.
She told the Guardian: “If you are growing up and it feels unfair and then your engagement feels unfair too, you exacerbate a difficult situation … it’s absolutely dangerous.”
Most of the children interviewed accepted responsibility for their actions but a couple were “unrepentant and defiant”, the report says. The young people wanted the government to do more to tackle poverty and provide more opportunities for young people, saying that without this they risked being lured into criminality.
De Souza said her report “does not excuse criminality” and she accepted that the harm caused by the children’s actions was “undeniable”.
She said: “Today’s findings offer no simple solutions but paint a more complex picture than has been debated following the riots. However, it is one that we must grapple with in order to create a more positive experience of childhood than one this report sets out.”
A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson said it was important to avoid the “unnecessary criminalisation” of children but that during widespread unrest police “have a duty to respond appropriately and protect our communities”.