Indigenous justice in Australia

Courts and sentencing

The NSW Law Reform Commission's report Sentencing: Aboriginal offenders and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC discuss the underlying issues that give rise to the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice. The RCIADIC report stressed that the most important factor is the 'socially, economically and culturally disadvantaged position of many Aboriginal people'.

Other factors to be considered are that:

• Indigenous people are more likely to be in court for minor offences and receive shorter sentences
• Any contact with the criminal justice system increases the likelihood of recidivism and further contact with the criminal justice system.

The Law Reform Commission's report notes that the NSW Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee considers several factors in that state that further increase the likelihood of involvement with the police and courts, including truth in sentencing, increased police powers, the continuing criminalisation of offensive language and policies aimed at targeting recidivists.

Examples of assistance at court for Indigenous people are:

• New South Wales : Community Restorative Centre court support
• Victoria : Aboriginal Liaison Officer

Statistics

Other resources

• NSW Attorney General's Department : evaluation of circle sentencing program report
  Cultural and Indigenous Research Centre Australia, Sydney : Cultural and Indigenous Research Centre Australia. 2008
• Equality before the law (PDF 902kB)
  Judicial commission of NSW, 2006
• Aboriginal cultural awareness benchbook for Western Australian courts
  Stephanie Fryer-Smith. Australian Institute of Judicial Adminstration, 2002
• Mandatory sentencing chronology 1901-2002
  Australian Parliamentary Library, 2002
• Aboriginal people and the criminal justice system: comparison of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cases finalised in the Magistrates Courts and Higher Courts of South Australia 1998 (PDF 201kB)
  Office of Crime Statistics, South Australia, 2000
• The Penalties and Sentences and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2000: input of community justice groups in sentencing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders (PDF 192kB)
  Cathy Green, Queensland Parliamentary Library, 2000
• Sentencing and Indigenous peoples
  Rick Sarre and Digby Wilson, roundtable proceedings, 1998
• Reports on Aboriginal witnesses and police watchhouses : status of recommendations (PDF 339kB)
  Queensland Criminal Justice Commission, 1997