Indigenous Australians Face Within The Criminal Justice System

For decades, there has always been a very precarious relationship with aboriginal communities and the criminal justice system, especially with issues of indigenous victimisation and over-representation within the custody of police and prisons and the history of colonisation. Over-representation is the disproportionate numbers in which indigenous people come into custody compared to the non-indigenous. Although the justice system has been working together in order to overcome these deep-rooted issues and eliminate any negative associations with indigenous communities. This essay will outline the relationship between aboriginal communities and the police, the concerns associated with this relationship, why they are over-represented in the criminal justice system and the efforts that have been made to prevent this accumulating in the future.

We are learning that when genuine 'Indigenous' Justice is hiding under the cloak of Western paradigms, we continue to see the rising population of Indigenous peoples--especially Indigenous women--in prisons. Our programs and rehabilitative initiatives remain under Western paradigms, even when painted with the brush of 'restorative' or 'indigenous'

How often do we stop to think about the minorities of this country and how they become involved and are treated in the criminal justice system? I surmise; only some of us will concern ourselves with such details. For some like myself; we might work with individuals of the Aboriginal community or have interacted with members of this group whether through school or work. Canada “had an Aboriginal identity in 2011 of 4 % or 1.4 million people” (Kelly-Scott and Smith, 2015). Of this total there is a gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canada’s Criminal Justice System. This overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the CJS comes as a result of socio economic factors, sentencing reforms, systemic discrimination, education and employment and victimization of Aboriginal women. In partial fulfilment of this course, this paper will address the leading factors which has led to the overrepresentation of this group in the CJS.

Nancy Macdonald (2016), an editor who works for the Maclean’s, writes an article on the way Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens are treated by the law and police force. At least 36 per cent of the women and 25 per cent of men, who are Indigenous, were already sentenced to provincial and territorial custody in Canada. Nancy explains, from these scores, these statistics make up at least 4 per cent of the national population. She also explains, if you add in the federal prisons, the statistics will now account for 22.8 per cent Indigenous inmates of the total incarcerated population.

Minister if you will turn your attention to the following chart, which shows a comparison of imprisonment rates between different countries. It is thoroughly disappointing to see that the Aboriginal’s represent Australia with such substantial numbers. Minister there are alarming numbers the gravity of this situation transfers to other areas. Furthermore Western Australia the Aboriginal imprisonment rates are at an astounding 3,741, in comparison to the Aboriginal people the rest of Australia at

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) in 1991 provided documentation on the death of indigenous Australians in prison or police custody. In doing so the report highlighted the substantial over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Criminal Justice system and provided detailed analysis of underlying factors. The reports findings were believed to be the foundation of change. However, regardless of a range of policy changes and crime prevention programs in repose to the report, over representation in the criminal justice system remains. The issue is one of the most significant social justice and public policy issue in the contemporary Australian criminal justice system. The RCIADIC made 339 recommendations, most of which have been implemented into the criminal justice system over the past two decades. Never the less the systematic over representation remains prevalent. The purpose of this essay is to understand over representation as it exists in the contemporary criminal justice system. Particular emphasise will be placed on the levels of women and youths in the criminal justice system, their contact with the system and empirically based risk factors pertaining to over representation. An evaluation of alternative programs in the pre and post sentencing stage and the impact such programs would have on the over representation will be conducted.

Cunneens (2007) articles showed relative statistics, showing the negative effects of the relationship between the two groups, whether it is one groups wrong doing or not, the evidence shows that there is an issue that needs urgent attention and resolving. “Indigenous people were 17 times more likely to be held in custody than non-Indigenous people in Australia” this raw fact can be looked at from two different perspectives; number one the indigenous community are victimised by the police, or two a major percentage of the indigenous community are being involved in crime. Considering the indigenous population compared to the non indigenous community is so small, it does

The recognition of aboriginal customary laws under the Australian Criminal justice system is just confined to acknowledgement of just the traditional physical punishments at the stage of sentencing. It all depends upon the interpretation and readings of individuals who play a role in the Criminal justice system in the capacity of judicial officers, officers of the court, lawyers and police officers etc. (Aboriginal Law& criminal justice,Law Reform Commission,W.Australia)

For example, since 2005 there has a been a 3% decrease in the number of Caucasian offenders being admitted to facilities while simultaneously the number of aboriginals and blacks have increased by 47.4% and over 75% respectively. As a whole, the representation of aboriginals and blacks in the correctional system is 22.8% and 9.8% in contrast to 4.3% and 2.9% of the general population. (2) (3)

The over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system is a large problem in society and reasons as to why this may be occurring need to be examined (Walker & McDonald, 1995; AIC, 2013). Indigenous Australians make up less than three per cent of the overall Australian population, however Indigenous people are over-represented in Australian prison populations, with imprisonment rates that are around 12 times those of the rest of the Australian population (AIC, 2013). Rates of over-representation are even higher in juvenile detention, with a 10-17 year old Indigenous person being around 24 times more likely to be in detention than a non-Indigenous person of the same age (AIC, 2013; Cunneen & White, 2011). Indigenous Australians overrepresentation in the criminal justice system is usually due to offences pertaining to violence and public disorder (ABS, 2010; Hogg & Carrignton, 2006). This is endorsed by the fact that Indigenous Australians currently make up 40 per cent of those imprisoned for assault offences (AIC, 2013). The over representation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system may be attributed to a variety of reasons, known as risk factors (AIC, 2013).

Coming from the UK as an international student I choose to take up Indigenous studies to widen my knowledge on the living circumstances of Aboriginals. Understanding sociologist views on what they perceive as social justice, I believe their notions should be applied to the Aboriginal community. This is due to the fact that ‘social justice’ is based on the distribution of fairness and equality amongst people of all ethnic, class, race, gender and disability. However, the readings and news reports which surrounding this course do not apply the concept social justice amongst the Indigenous community. For example, the high numbers of arrest amongst Indigenous communities demonstrates the unfairness within the law system; children being arrested

With the development of the legal policy and societal structure, the treatment of aboriginal people changed a lot. At the past, aboriginal suffered numbers of unfair treatment, such as: stolen generation, the right to vote, and land taken. In present, although the human rights and the indigenous peoples’ rights are used to protect the aboriginal, their behaviour still be limited and large percentages of them suffering the unfair treatment, such as education, and death in custody. The treatment of aboriginals becoming better, but it does not mean that they are equal to others. Both present treatment and past treatment did not obey the guidelines of the charters of human rights and indigenous peoples right. This essay will introduce the typical unfair treatment at both periods. In addition, the evidence that the treatment is violating the human rights and indigenous peoples rights will be given.

The indigenous youth those between the ages of 10-17, make up 39% of the juvenile justice supervision on any given day during 2010-2011 periods, spite the fact they only make 5% of the entire population of Australian in this age groups. This static shows overrepresentation of indigenous children in this juvenile justice system can partly be attributed large portions of indigenous people living low socioeconomic environments. A Senate inquiry that looked into the conditions of indigenous people found factors such family and community violence, child abuse, drug use and lack of education also contributed to these rates. It also stipulated that historical injustice such colonialization, removal of children from parents and community (Stolen generation),

There are two growing issues within contemporary Australian society that demonstrates how policy-making and our current approach to crime control are ineffective in reducing the instances of crime. The first is the over representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, and the second is female victimisation within domestic violence. In both of these examples a majority of the funding in these areas are allocated to punishment and control, rather than rehabilitation and restoration. The underlying

The Australian peoples recognition of indigenous citizens has changed over the last decade. Prior to the government in charge, Kevin Rudd made a formal public apology to the indigenous people regarding the stolen generations. As the apology was long overdue, it does not directly confront the issue within the constitution or legislative shortage of the recognition of indigenous people . As this essay will demonstrate and concentrate on parts of the constitution in regards to the protection of indigenous peoples rights. It will demonstrate the ‘constitutional movement’ and a reformation of the Australian constitution. This essay will also consider any faults within the ‘races power (s51(xxvi)’ and consider the changes to reform determents into benefiting the