Indigenous peoples and criminal justice in Australia

© The Author(s) 2017. The authors of this chapter contextualise crime and criminal justice within Australian colonial history. They map the development of Aboriginal criminology in Australia and cover key themes that have disproportionately affected Indigenous peoples such as over-policing, lack of access to justice in the neoliberal context, incarceration, and deaths in custody. Finally, the authors reflect on Indigenous experiences of criminal justice, and various processes that challenge contemporary justice interventions, including Indigenous courts, night patrols, and community justice initiatives. The authors conclude by considering the possibilities of an Indigenous criminology

Violence and Indigenous Communities

This chapter focuses on violence and Indigenous peoples in the Anglo settler colonial states of Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States. Indigenous activists and scholars in the Anglo settler colonial states have long tackled the complex issues contributing to the high rates of violence occurring in some Indigenous communities. However, mainstream debates on violence tended to be constrained in their conceptualisations of violence (notably missing are references to racist violence and state violence) and continue to be dominated by colonising discourses of pathology, tribalism and barbarity. We seek to move beyond the restricted focus on Indigenous peoples’ so-called ‘problem’ with violence and to provide a more nuanced and critical interpretation of the complex relationship between Indigenous people and violence

Human rights and youth justice reform in England and Wales: A systemic analysis

This article examines critically the persistently antagonistic relationship – across the past quarter-century – between the provisions of international human rights instruments and the nature and direction of youth justice reform in England and Wales. It introduces the core provisions of the human rights framework that pertain to youth justice and it sketches the nature and direction of policy reform over the 25-year period under scrutiny (1991–2016). To obtain a comprehensive sense of the relationship between human rights and youth justice reform in the jurisdiction, it applies a detailed systemic analysis; beginning at the point at which criminal responsibility is formally imputed and progressing through each stage of the youth justice system, up to the point where the child might ultimately be deprived of her/his liberty. By taking a ‘long-view’ of youth justice reform and by adopting a systemic end-to-end analysis of the human rights–youth justice interface, the article presents an analytical account of both change (policy reforms) and continuity (the enduring nature of human rights violations)

Juvenile Justice, Young People and Human Rights in Australia

This article identifies the key human rights issues that emerge for young people in juvenile justice in Australia. While there is a clear framework for respecting the human rights of children within juvenile justice, the article poses the question: To what extent does Australia actually operationalise and comply with these rights in law, policy and practice? In answering, it discusses various national and international reports, legislation, academic and other research and litigation on behalf of children. It identifies substantive and procedural human rights violations affecting young people in juvenile justice, many of which fall disproportionately on two over-represented groups: Indigenous young people, and those with mental health disorders and cognitive disability. While there are review and compliance mechanisms in place, respect for young people's rights within the broad area of juvenile justice remains problematic

‘It's all about the Benjamins’: Infringement notices and young people in New South Wales

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. This article provides a brief analysis of the place, role and purpose of monetary penalties and their theoretical underpinnings. Against this critique of financial penalties and the revenue ('the Benjamins')1 that flows from penalty infringement notices, the article examines the six-fold growth in penalty infringement notices2 issued to children and young people in NSW between 1998 and 2013. It outlines the disproportionate impact of monetary penalties on them and the increasing displacement of diversionary options, raising questions about the appropriateness of issuing infringement notices to children and young people. This article also addresses positive developments in relation to children and young people, including the introduction of Work and Development Orders (WDOs) in NSW

Youth justice and racialization: Comparative reflections

Drawing on comparative work between Australia and England and Wales, this article considers issues of criminalization, racialization and youth justice. The article explores both the overt and more subtle forms of racializing and criminalizing young people and highlights the necessity for historically and situationally contextualized understandings of identity and race. The rationalities, practices and discourses of youth justice through which racialization occurs are identified, including how race itself becomes solidified as a category in which people, in many cases, from heterogeneous backgrounds, can be captured and named. In particular there is discussion of the rise of apparently neutral and non-discriminatory justifications for intervention found in the use of risk assessment that leads to racialized differentiation. It is argued that these practices both mask race in their practices and mark race in their outcomes

Justice Reinvestment as Social Justice

This chapter draws on the work of the Australian Justice Reinvestment Project (AJRP) (Brown et al., 2015). The AJRP examined the development of justice reinvestment particularly in the context of it’s alignment with broad social justice values. We are also specifically interested in how and whether justice reinvestment can meet the needs of those social groups that have been adversely affected by mass imprisonment and hyper-incarceration, particularly racial and Indigenous minorities, women and people with mental health issues and cognitive impairment (Cunneen et al., 2013). We argue that justice reinvestment was in its early development strongly tied to civil rights, particularly with the focus on imprisonment and racialization, and social justice for communities where large numbers of residents were recycled in and out of prison

Reciprocal relationships between trajectories of loneliness and screen media use during adolescence

Adolescence is the peak period for loneliness. Now a ubiquitous part of the adolescent landscape, electronic screens may provide avenues for ameliorating feelings of loneliness. Conversely, they may act as risk factors for the development of such feelings. Although cross-sectional studies to date have investigated the relationship between screen use and loneliness, longitudinal studies are needed if causal and directional associations are to be investigated. Utilising an accelerated longitudinal design and online survey we collected four waves of data from 1919 secondary school adolescents aged 10–15 years over two years. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models tested whether changes in five types of screen use (i.e., total screen time, social media use, gaming, passive screen use, and web use) are associated with changes in loneliness in the subsequent time-point, or changes in loneliness are associated with changes in screen use in the subsequent time-point. We found significant reciprocal associations between screen use and loneliness, with the strongest associations between social networking and electronic gaming and quality of friendships. These findings highlight that any significant increase in an adolescent's screen use may be a potential indicator of changes in quality of friendships or feelings of isolation

Notes on a scandal: the official enquiry into deviance and corruption in New Zealand police

Since 2004, the New Zealand Police Service has been engulfed by a series of scandals relating to allegations that officers have committed rape and sexual assault and conducted inappropriate sexual relations with vulnerable people. Moreover, it has been claimed that other officers engaged in corrupt practices to thwart the investigation and prosecution of criminal behaviour of police officers. In 2007, a Commission of Inquiry report established a program of reform intended to shape the future direction of the police service. This article provides an overview of these scandals, the context in which they have emerged, and the political and policing response to them. The analysis contained in the Commission report is compared with that offered by comparable investigations of police deviance and corruption in other countries. The methodological and conceptual limitations of the Commission are outlined and the prospects of the recommendations are considered

Keeping it in the family: Parental influences on young people's attitudes to police

Prior research finds young people are less satisfied with police than their older counterparts. Despite this, our understanding of youth attitudes to police is limited, as most research has focused on adult attitudes to police. This study adds to our understanding by examining the influence of parent–child dynamics on youth attitudes to police. We predict that youth attitudes to police will be influenced by their parents’ attitudes. A survey of 540 school students in South East Queensland reveals that perceived parental attitudes to police are associated with youth attitudes to police. However, this effect is partially mediated by maternal, but not paternal attachment. These findings suggest that youth attitudes to police are not simply influenced by contact with police and delinquency, but that familial context is important. Consequently, our theoretical understanding of youth attitudes to police must move beyond a focus upon police contact and delinquency