Australia, September 27: Police across Australia are far more likely to arrest young Aborigines and see that they go to court than non-indigenous juveniles, who are considerably more likely to be let off with a warning or caution.
A groundbreaking study by the Australian Institute of Criminology to be published today paints a disturbing picture of young Aborigines’ contact with police, The Australian reports.
It may go some way to explaining why indigenous 10 to 17-year-olds are 28 times more likely to be in detention than non-indigenous youths.
Pulling together for the first time comparative national data on young people’s contact with police and the courts, the AIC report reveals the differential treatment of indigenous children doesn’t stop at the front gate of the juvenile justice system.
In at least two states, Western Australia and South Australia, young Aborigines are more likely to be convicted in children’s courts than non-indigenous juveniles for the same type of offences, the report shows. No other states provided data on conviction rates.
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In Western Australia, the one state that issued statistics on sentencing, young Aborigines are more than twice as likely as non-indigenous juveniles to be given a jail term after being found guilty.
The AIC study, “Juveniles’ contact with the criminal justice system in Australia”, finds that in NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, police are more likely to arrest and refer to court young Aborigines, compared with non-indigenous youths.
Information from Victoria and Tasmania was not available.
“(In NSW in 2007-08), 48 per cent of indigenous juveniles were transferred to court, compared to 21 per cent of non-indigenous juveniles,” the report says.
“And 32 per cent of non-indigenous juveniles receive warnings compared with 18 per cent of indigenous juveniles.
“(In Queensland in 2006-07), indigenous juveniles were more likely to be processed by way of arrest (39 per cent) than any other method, while non-indigenous juveniles were more likely to be dealt with via a caution (49 per cent) than any other method of processing.”
In Western Australia, where half of all juveniles arrested are Aboriginal, 71 per cent of the cautions issued in 2005 were to non-indigenous youths, 29 per cent to Aboriginal juveniles.
—Agencies