Aboriginal Contact

ABORIGINAL CONTACT WITH THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM AND THE IMPACT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION INTO ABORIGINAL DEATHS IN CUSTODY

by Richard Harding, Roderic Broadhurst, Anna Ferrante, Nini Loh

CONTENTS

1. Introduction
   1. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
   2. The recent history of the criminal justice system and its impact upon Aboriginals
   3. The Aboriginal population
   4. General explanations of Aboriginal crime
   5. Reducing the imbalance: self-help strategies and economic equity
   6. Overview
2. Aboriginal Crime Victims
   1. Sources of information
   2. Victim surveys
   3. Crimes reported to police
      1. Offences against the person
      2. Characteristics of victims of violence
      3. Victim injury
      4. Victim-offender relationships
      5. Same-race and cross-race offending patterns
      6. Location
   4. Summary
3. Police Activity and Aborigines
   1. Introduction
   2. Police apprehensions
      1. Rates of arrest
      2. Age and sex characteristics
      3. Type of offence
   3. Police custody
   4. Police cautioning
   5. Location of apprehensions
   6. Risks of re-arrest
      1. Re-arrest by race and sex
   7. Summary
4. Aborigines in the Courts
   1. Young Aborigines and the Children's Court
      1. Trends in juvenile convictions, 1990-1993
      2. Characteristics of juvenile offenders
      3. Outcome and penalties for juvenile offenders
      4. All juvenile convictions
   2. Courts of Petty Sessions, 1992
      1. Penalties imposed by Courts of Petty Sessions
   3. Higher Courts
      1. Descriptive summary
      2. Disposition of convicted offenders
      3. Sentence length
   4. Summary: the sentencing role of the Courts
5. Imprisoned Aborigines
   1. Juveniles in detention
   2. Adult imprisonment
      1. Trends in imprisonment
      2. Characteristics of the adult prison population
      3. Imprisonment rates of Aborigines
      4. National imprisonment rates
      5. International comparisons
   3. Probabilities of re-imprisonment
   4. Police lock-ups
      1. Trends in lock-ups
   5. Deaths in custody
      1. Trends in deaths in custody
   6. Summary
6. Aborigines and Community-Based Corrections
   1. Trends
   2. Community service and probation order
   3. Work and development orders
   4. Parole
   5. Home detention
   6. Interstate comparisons
   7. Summary
7. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and Aboriginal Contact with the Criminal Justice System
   1. Aboriginal crime and victimisation patterns
   2. Police contacts, diversion mechanisms and the RCIADIC
   3. The Courts, the recommendations of the RCIADIC, and the proposed new sentencing legislation for Western Australia
   4. Imprisonment patterns and their implications for the RCIADIC recommendations
   5. Aborigines and the Community-Based Corrections: Implications for the RCIADIC recommendations
   6. Summary
8. Conclusion

   Bibliography and references

Published: November 1995
Price: AUD 25.00
ISBN: 1-876067-01-2

See Media Release for more information.

Please send orders to crime.research@uwa.edu.au or post to The Crime Research Centre, C/- The University of Western Australia, 14 Parkway, Nedlands, Western Australia, 6907

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