115. Same laws, different realities - a talk with Dr Bisi Akintoye on the treatment of women of colour within the CJS

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This episode we sit down with criminology lecturer and solicitor, Dr Bisi Akintoye, to talk about Black and Brown women within the UK criminal justice system and the importance of recognising intersectionality. 

We unpack how Black women and girls become invisible when policy and research default to frameworks built around either race or gender alone. That invisibility has consequences: victims of exploitation can be treated as suspects, safeguarding can be replaced by surveillance, and adultification bias can turn distress into “defiance”. We look at stop and search, strip searches, the lack of disaggregated data, and the quieter forms of control that rarely make headlines, including school exclusion, welfare monitoring, housing insecurity and healthcare neglect.

From there we move into the “everyday machinery” of justice, including why magistrates’ courts can amplify stereotypes through speed and routine, and why prison overrepresentation is better understood as the endpoint of multiple system failures rather than individual propensity. We also discuss mother and baby units, maternal separation, and how delayed screening and racialised disbelief of pain can make prison healthcare more dangerous for Black women.

For more episodes like this one, follow our podcast on Spotify, Apple Music and our website. If you’re passionate about this topic like we are, delve into Dr Bisi Akintoyes’ work and read her papers and research on the experience of young black individuals within the criminal justice system. 

Host - Louisa Nabi 

Guest - Dr Bisi Akintoye 

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