NCJ Number
184282
Date Published
1995
Length
154 pages
Annotation
What began as a comprehensive statistical profile of Aboriginal contact with Australia's criminal justice system has now become the single most thorough published analysis of the relation between the Royal Commission's recommendations from its investigation of Aboriginal deaths in custody and the slowly changing face of criminal justice administration as it impacts Aborigines.
Abstract
This report documents the available Western Australian (WA) data from police, court, and correctional records; where possible, national data are also cited. The WA criminal justice data show that Aborigines are 16 times more likely to be a victim of homicide and 6.5 times more likely to report to police crimes against the person than non-Aborigines. Among offenders, Aborigines are 9.2 times more likely to be arrested, 6.2 times more likely to be imprisoned by lower courts, 22.7 times more likely to be imprisoned as an adult, and 48.3 times more likely to be imprisoned as a juvenile than non-Aborigines. Although these levels of overrepresentation are substantially decreased when age, employment, and education differences between the races are controlled, significant levels remain. At various points in this report, desirable changes that have either occurred or have been foreshadowed by the WA Government have been noted. For the future, statistical reports that form part of the Implementation Report of the Royal Commission in Aboriginal Deaths in Custody should record and evaluate the impact of these changes; however, at this stage, progress made in WA since the handing down of the Royal Commission report in 1991 remains disappointing. Official figures continue to show an unacceptably high level of contact between Aborigines and the official criminal justice system, with an inevitable detrimental social impact. Extensive tabular and graphic data and 109 references