Adultification bias is a form of racial prejudice where children of minority groups, typically Black children, are treated by adults as being more mature than they are. They are perceived as being more 'streetwise', more 'grown up', less innocent and less vulnerable than their white peers and are therefore not treated with the care and protection that should be afforded to all minors.
Viewing children as more adult-like can lead to higher rates of punishment in schools, criminalisation, harsher sentences from judges, and a critical lack of safeguarding. All of which have been reported countless times amongst black children.
Although strongly denied by many, racism is undoubtedly at the heart of these attitudes, behaviours, and stereo types. In a study done in 2017, it was found that from the age of five, Black girls were viewed as more adult-like throughout all stages of childhood in comparison to white peers. This increased at age 10-14, where they were perceived as more mature, more sexually aware, and less ‘innocent’. This can be seen in the disturbing case of ‘Child Q’; a Black schoolgirl who was strip searched by the Metropolitan Police, who were called by staff at her East London school, as they said she smelled strongly of cannabis. ‘Child Q’ was strip searched in a classroom, without an appropriate adult, while she was on her period. Her parents were not informed of this.
Adultification of Black children doesn’t only affect girls. In fact, studies have also shown that these attitudes could lead to discrimination against black and mixed heritage boys in the youth justice system. If practitioners (in youth justice systems) attribute inappropriate maturity to a child, then their difficulties with or anxieties about engaging with services, which are not unusual given their young age, are more likely to be interpreted as choosing not to engage, being defiant or not willing to help. This in turn, can lead to these young boys not receiving the correct interventions and/ or being criminalised. Criminalisation of exploited young people is the equivalent to victim blaming. Most exploited young people have no idea of the lifestyles they are being groomed into or of the trauma they will endure.
So, I’m sat here thinking- at what age do Black children start being seen as a threat? Why are Black boys not allowed to be innocently mischievous without being labelled? Why is the term ‘boys will be boys’ only afforded to white boys and black boys are labelled as problematic?
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