Black lives matter: the violence of Indigenous incarceration in Australia

Kirstie Broadfield investigated the unequal relations of power between Indigenous Australians and the criminal justice system. She found that the unequal relations of power create a sense of 'deific authority' in criminal justice officers, resulting in them being more prone to inflicting symbolic, systemic, and subjective violence on Indigenous Australians

Risking a New Underclass: young Australians, broken transitions and the pandemic

From a sociological perspective the period of adolescence has traditionally focused on young people as risk takers as well as being more vulnerable to risks, particularly as they negotiate the transition to adult status. In Australia, many youth are now confronted with a different world from their parents with regards to less certainty about entering the labour market, greater dependence on their families and less opportunity to purchase a home. The challenges associated with transitioning to adulthood are now more problematic and individualized for some young people due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is argued that the current situation has disrupted the transition to adult status and now threatens to produce a new underclass of youth due to high levels of unemployment, underemployment and negative impacts on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the challenges for government and community in producing a response to this problem to reduce the risk of a cohort of youth becoming a new underclass in Australian society

Necropolitics and the violence of Indigenous incarceration

Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, over thirty years ago, there have been over 400 Indigenous deaths in custody, with 28% of the Australian prison population identifying as Indigenous. Indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice system continues to be an unresolved issue despite varying attempts to reduce the high incidence of incarceration experienced by Indigenous Australians. This paper proposes a fresh approach to analysing the violence of Indigenous incarceration using the theory of necropolitics. The paper represents a critical discussion of an ongoing research project that demonstrates how an analytical framework based on necropolitics has the potential to elevate the often-silenced voices of vulnerable populations, such as Indigenous Australians, within the criminal justice system. This is because the study will present a multi-level analysis of the overt and covert forms of violence perpetrated against Indigenous Australians within the criminal justice system and unlock the potential of exposing the extent to which unequal relations of power contribute to these forms of violence. The significance of this research therefore lies in its capacity to provide policymakers with deeper insights into how such forms of violence impact upon and further disempower Indigenous Australians in the Australian criminal justice system

A tale of two deaths: necropolitics in the criminal justice system

This is a story of two deaths that occurred in two different locations, 15,000 km apart; one in Australia, and one in the United States. What these deaths have in common is the context in which they occurred. Both were men in their 30s, both were black, and both deaths occurred as a result of the criminal justice system’s colonial necropolitics, in which lives are subjected to the power of death through technologies of control, like the police. Mulrunji Doomadgee, an Indigenous Australian man, died in police custody on the 19th November 2004 and Rudy Eugene, a Haitian-American man, died as a result of police inflicted gunshot wounds on 26th May 2012. The fetishistic disavowal of the police violence that contributed to their deaths demonstrates the precarity of Indigenous and minority lives in these countries

Adolescent and young adult substance use in Australian Indigenous communities: a systematic review of demand control program outcomes

Abstract Objective: Identifying preventative approaches to substance use in Indigenous communities is the foundation for developing evidence‐based responses. This study reports the findings of a systematic review of the published literature evaluating the impact of substance use programs on Australian Indigenous youth. Methods: Evidence about the impact of substance use programs for Indigenous young people was identified from a systematic review of the literature conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines. Results: Only four original studies that met the inclusion criteria were identified, although a further 19 papers that described characteristics of programs that may be associated with improved outcomes were reviewed. Conclusions: Evidence relevant to the outcomes of demand control programs that target Australian Indigenous youth substance use is both weak and inconsistent. There is a need to support the type of evaluation activity required to better understand program effectiveness and build the Indigenous knowledge base. Implications for public health: These findings are discussed in relation to the development of evidence‐based practice and the type of knowledge that is likely to be of most use to those seeking to address problems associated with youth substance use