Aborigines and Crime in Australia (From Ethnicity, Crime, and Immigration: Comparative and Cross-National Perspectives, P 407-468, 1997, Michael Tonry, ed. - See NCJ-165170)

• NCJ Number: 165178
• Author(s): R Broadhurst
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 62 pages
• Sale Source: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics International Crime Statistics Program

Annotation

Research on the involvement of Aborigines in crime in Australia and on the response of the criminal justice system is reviewed.

Abstract

The analysis revealed that Aborigines are 16 times more likely in Western Australia to be homicide victims and 6.5 times more likely to report crimes against the person to police than are non-Aborigines. In addition, Aborigines are 9.2 times more likely to be arrested, 6.2 times more likely to be imprisoned by lower courts, 23.7 times more likely to be imprisoned as an adult, and 48 times more likely to be imprisoned as juveniles than are non-Aborigines. The increased overrepresentation from arrest to imprisonment appears to be largely a function of the very high levels of recidivism among Aborigines. Eighty-eight percent of male Aborigines and 52 percent of non-Aborigines are rearrested, and 75 percent of Aborigines and 43 percent of non-Aboriginal males return to prison at least once. States with a high Aboriginal cultural strength and socioeconomic stress index are the most punitive. Moreover, cultural strength, stress, and imprisonment are highly correlated and associated with states with the most frontier characteristics. Tables, footnotes, and 82 references (Author abstract modified)