Aboriginal youth (10-18 years) are over-represented in the Australian Criminal Justice System, and are not given equal opportunities to diversionary schemes at the same rate as non-Aboriginal youth. ... Aboriginal youth have come to be viewed as a law and order problem within Australia as a result of their over-representation, and the medias coverage of Aboriginal youth and crime. This essay will discuss these growing implications facing Aboriginal society, and possible answers to tireless "whys" regarding these problems. ...
Aboriginal youth are over-represented in the Australian Criminal Justice system. ... 26) compare young Aboriginal offenders to non-Aboriginal offenders in NSW by percentage of court appearances resulting in a detention order in 1990. ... Reasons for this over-representation include the fact that young Aboriginals commit more crime than non-Aboriginals (Cunneen & White, 1995, p. ... Why do young Aboriginals commit more crime? ... 96) gives reasons for the over-representation of young Aboriginals: "Due to high visibility, Aboriginal youth are constantly noticed by the community and police", this is linked to police and community discretion, as whether or not, young Aboriginals are actually breaking the law, if a "respectable" community member, or police officer choose to report a young Aboriginal, the probability that that particular youth is consequentially involved with the juvenile justice system is high. ... 499) notes that "Factors such as the utilisation of police discretion on the street, over-policing, police-youth conflict and racism have been ignored although they are the very issues likely to lead to disproportionate criminalisation of indigenous young people (Cunneen, 1994, cited in HRDOC, 1997, p. ... "There are consistent complaints by Aboriginal youth of racism and violence on the part of police officers" (Cunneen, cited in Borowski & OConnor, 1997, p. ... This contributes to the over-representation of Aboriginal youth in the criminal justice system. Contact with the police confirms the Aboriginal offenders expectations of the system and promotes the resistance and hostility felt towards the police. The report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission on Aboriginal juveniles and police found that the majority of Aboriginal juveniles in detention centres in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia had suffered violence at the hands of police (White & Perrone, 1997).
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