Indigenous justice in Australia

Offenders

Self-reported offending patterns of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians indicate heightened levels of certain kinds of offending (including involvement in serious crime) by Indigenous Australians; for example, during the 1998-1999 period, 19% of Indigenous people surveyed admitted criminal involvement in assault, whereas only 8% of non-Indigenous people admitted similar involvement.

For additional offence statistics, see:

• Indigenous over-representation in prison : The role of offender characteristics (PDF 533kB)
  Lucy Snowball and Don Weatherburn, New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Crime and justice statistics bureau brief, September 2006
• Indigenous offender/detainee statistics
• Reducing Aboriginal over-representation in prison
  Don Weatherburn, Jackie Fitzgerald, and Jiuzhao Hua 2003, Australian journal of public administration, vol. 62, no. 3, pp.65-73.
• Aboriginal victimisation and offending: the picture from police records (PDF 55kB)
  Jacqueline Fitzgerald and Don Weatherburn, New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Crime and justice statistics bureau brief, December 2001

Young offenders

Using measures identified by the Dusseldorp skills forum, ATSIS identified less than full-time attachment to the current labour market or education as contributing factors for young people at risk. By these measures 16.7% of non-Indigenous teenagers aged 15-19 were at risk in 2001, compared with 45.3% of Indigenous teenagers

Source: ATSIS 2003, How young Indigenous people are faring 2003

Other resources

• Indigenous male offending and substance abuse
  Judy Putt, Jason Payne and Lee Milner, 2005
• Aboriginal involvement in the Western Australian criminal justice system : a statistical review
  Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia, 1999-2003
• Driving offences & Aboriginal people: stage 1 offence targeting project, May 2003 (PDF 247kB)
  Brendan Thomas, New South Wales Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council, 2003
• The interaction between petrol sniffers and bush court in Aboriginal communities
  Natalie Siegel, Inhalant use and disorder conference, 2003
• Developing a unique risk of violence tool for Australian Indigenous offenders
  Alfred Allan and Deborah Dawson, 2002
• Policing public order: offensive language and behaviour: the impact on Aboriginal people (PDF 158kB)
  Brendan Thomas, New South Wales Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council, 2000
• Gangs and kinship: gang organisation amongst contemporary Indigenous cultures
  Duane Bell and Bruce Heathcote, Children and crime: victims and offenders conference, 1999
• The new stolen generations
  Chris Cunneen, Juvenile crime and juvenile justice: towards 2000 and beyond conference, 1997
• Aboriginal youth and the juvenile justice system in Western Australia
  Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia, 1995