Strip searches in police custody and their association with ethnicity/race: Evidence from an English force

Abstract

Recent high-profile cases have sparked concern about strip searches following stop and search, but less attention has been paid to strip-searching in police custody. Using binary logistic regression on data (N = 25,676) from an English police force, we examine factors associated with strip-searching in custody for those detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984, finding increased odds of strip-searching among individuals who self-define as Black, disclose self-harm or mental ill-health or are arrested for drug-possession offences. Black males and Black children face higher odds than expected from either characteristic alone. As one of the very few, and quite possibly the only article in the last 20 years – either in England or elsewhere – to use multivariate analysis to consider factors associated with strip-searching of both adults and children in a single model, allowing us to control for age and interaction effects, it offers insights for theory, policy and practice.