Aboriginal Youth and the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

This book is a 1990 account of the ways in which young Aborigines were at a disadvantage before laws and legislation had been introduced, intended to improve their position. Aboriginal Youth and the Criminal Justice System focuses on South Australia, where detailed statistics are available, in a sophisticated analysis of the exact nature of the discrimination experienced by young Aborigines. Fay Gale, Rebecca Bailey-Harris and Joy Wundersitz examine the criminal justice system in operation; from the initial intervention by a police officer, through the process of screening and assessment to the final outcome - which all too often is a criminal record. The research clearly shows that at every point where discretion was exercised within this system, Aboriginal youths received the harsher option. Thus disadvantage is heaped on disadvantage until young Aboriginals were imprisoned at 23 times the rate of other young Australians. Even for those who escaped detention, participation in the criminal justice system was often such an ordeal that it became a form of punishment in itself. Discretion, though preferable to inflexible rules could operate against a group whose lifestyle and values differed from mainstream society.

Characterizing Gender and Race in the 2000 Summer Olympics: NBC's Coverage of Maurice Greene,MichaelJohnson, Marion Jones, and Cathy Freeman

“…An officiallysanctioned policy initiated in 1918, allowed British officers to take or steal Aboriginal children from their parents with the intention of forcing European assimilation, leading to a lost number of Aborigines, now known as the "Stolen Generation." As a con,sequence of historical and neocolonialism, Aborigines now show unusually high incarceration rates (Gale, 1987;Gale, Bailey-Harris, & Wundersitz, 1990), face housing discrimination (Beresford, 2001), are over-represented in physically dangerous occupations (Mayhew & Vickerman, 1996), and hold unusually low educational and income levels relative to larger Australian populations (Taylor & Gaminiratne, 1993). Clearly, Aborigines face harsh interpersonal and institutional racial discrimination in Australia.…”

Family conferencing as a juvenile justice strategy∗

“…Aboriginal young people are far less likely to be diverted away from court, a situation that has a familiar ring to it. 38 "...Aborigines accounted for 7.2% of all cautions, 12.4% of all referrals to a family conference and 19.3% of all referrals to the Youth Court. Their level of over-representation therefore increases as they move deeper into the system.…”

Essentialism, Radical Criminology and Left Realism

“…While this legal location is seen as a weakness by Carson and O'Malley it arguably gave an interventionist impetus to the emerging radical criminology, aligning it to concrete criminal justice struggles and, in particular, prison movement and community legal centre organisations (Basten et aI, 1982;Sallmann and Willis, 1984;Zdenkowski et al, 1987;Hogan, Brown and Hogg, 1988). The emphasis has been on the specific policing practices in relation to particular groups (Brown et ai, 1984): Aborigines (Cunneen and Robb, 1987;Bird, 1987;Gale, 1990;Cunneen, 1990); bikies (Cunneen et ai, 1989) and youth (White, 1989(White, , 1990Presdee, 1989). Throughout the 1980sa critical examination of white collar crime, and the regulation of business and D BROWN and R HOGG (1992) 25 ANZJ Crim pollution by Hopkins, Braithwaite, Fisse and Grabosky in particular, has continued the 'crimes of the powerful' focus, but with a more empirically informed eye (Hopkins, 1978;Braithwaite, 1984;Grabosky and Braithwaite, 1986;Braithwaite and Fisse, 1988;Grabosky, 1989).…”