Indigenous justice in Australia

Community and government interventions in Indigenous justice

Circle sentencing

Circle sentencing involves taking a sentencing court to the local community, where the magistrate and the community sit in a circle, discuss the matter and arrive at an appropriate sentence.

Community members include the offender and victim and their families and respected members of the local Indigenous community.

Australian circle sentencing is based on Canadian experience.

In New South Wales the scheme is invoked once the alleged offender has pleaded or been found guilty.

According to Marchetti and Daly and Freiberg circle sentencing courts have been established, mostly on a trial basis, at Nowra and Dubbo in New South Wales, at Yandeyarra in Western Australia, and in the ACT. Since these reports were written, more circle sentencing courts have been established,

Resources

• Circle sentencing in New South Wales
  Crime prevention division, NSW Attorney General's Department
• Circle sentencing in New South Wales : a review and evaluation (PDF 849kB)
  Ivan Potas, Jane Smart and Georgia Brignell, Judicial Commission of New South Wales; and Brendan Thomas and Rowena Lawrie, NSW Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council, 2003
• 'Circle sentencing' trial wins bipartisan support
  ABC news, 8 November 2003
• Circle sentencing : involving Aboriginal communities in the sentencing process (PDF 448kB)
  Brendan Thomas, New South Wales Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council, 2000