GovWire

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) commissioned Ipsos and Manchester Metropolitan University to conduct research into PSRs.

PSRs bring together important information about a child to help inform the courts sentencing decision.

This report explores the use and quality of PSRs in the youth justice system. It also explores whether PSRs might contribute to racial disparity in sentencing decisions as identified by previous YJB-funded research, which showed that Black children were more likely to receive harsher sentencing outcome after controlling for other factors.

This publication includes:

• the research report, including an accessible version
• a technical annex