Internal external factors shaping system: Example – Indigenous people criminal justice. Key question: An eminent Australian criminologist claimed criminal justice system “a major institutional tearing, bleeding rift black communities”

Internal external factors shaping system:

It is clear that the indigenous people in Australia have been going though much higher rates of interaction with the criminal justice system than non-Indigenous people or whites. Evidence does shows that information on police proceedings against alleged offenders imply an offending rate by Indigenous individuals of about 1 in 10, compared to 1 in 79 for the non-Indigenous population, though this figure does not consist of information from all states (Douglas, 2012). What is definite is that Aboriginal adults in Australia are just about 14 times more expected to be put in jail than non-Indigenous people, and the gap remains to grow. Indigenous adults are put in jail at a rate of 2404 per 100-000 and statistics show 25 per cent of inmates in Australia are Aboriginal people. (Marmo, 2012). With that said, this paper will show rather or not the criminal justice system itself is a major institutional cause of the tearing, bleeding rift between Aboriginal people and while communities and if there has there been any progress plus the function of the specialist indigenous courts do?

Aboriginal People and Law Enforcements

Research shows that that in Australia there is a rift among the Aborigines and white population and crime. Part of this rift has a lot to do with the police interaction because in most cases, the police are white. In so many ways, discrimination and racism is dealt in a different way by each police officer, and in numerous cases, police who use prejudice preference may think that they are just doing their jobs as they have been trained to do. This procedure of racism though not truthfully obvious from empirical research is in a general sense a form of indirect racism. At any rate, police officers believe they are precise in their duties, as their description of who is a ‘suspect’ and basic ‘common sense’ had been constitutionally well-defined for them. Some Aborigines believe that they are being hunted and seen as easy targets for police activity (McGlade, 2012). Research shows that the constant highlight of crime in the Aboriginal community helps whites to develop a more prejudice view towards Aboriginal people thus causing a much bigger rift. In any case, Rees’ does make the point that the issues related with Aboriginal individuals as easy targets.

In Australia, as well as all over the world, Indigenous Criminology is still in infancy of paradigm development. The effects of Indigenous Criminology has possible impact for communities and Indigenous people. The research displays that the conceptualization of race as a variable for criminal justice involvement cannot be discounted because it is causing a right among the communities. Australia corrective institutions are evidence of race discrimination. For example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals are considered to be over represented when it comes to corrective service establishments. Racism and discrimination have been significant issues in bearing in mind the reasons for the noteworthy high number of Native people who are all tangled up in the criminal justice system (Braithwaite, 2002). The comparative difference and impact in which racism has on Aboriginal persons cannot in reality be respectively equal with what non-Aboriginal individuals suffer from.

Investigation presents that racism and discrimination for Indigenous people in Australia is a very real existence. In Australia, it exists in many customs of socio-financial living, to existing in government establishments. Discrimination and racism occurs in every feature of life where one group has more authority than the other. The main area where disparity and discrimination is extensively apparent in Australia is the relationship between the criminal justice system, the white community and Aboriginal people (Cunneen, 2008).

Part of this rift occurs because of the racist’s remarks, and stereotypical concepts and perceptions by the mainstream. The level of racism has been on the rise in the Australian society among whites and Aborigines. In reality “racism is rooted in every feature of Australian community. In kin to the criminal justice system, Aborigines are known to be subject to “continuous humiliation, police bullying and cruelty from the time they are born in this world.” (Pattel-Gray, 2013) Wilson and Lincoln point out additionally that racism to Indigenous Australian’s inside the criminal justice development is not just assumed as remarks that are subjective. They maintain that “police unrestricted powers or racism in process is one of the explanations for the high degree of Aboriginal imprisonment.” (Douglas, 2012) In 1998, the Police Service in New South Wales sanctioned the NSW Police Service Aboriginal Intentional Plan and Strategy Declaration.

The Bleeding Rift

It needs to be understood that this separation among whites and blacks in Australia goes back far in Australian history. Racism in Australia starts from the moment of birth in for Aboriginals people. According to Cunneen’s extensive investigation into Aboriginal juveniles and the criminal justice procedures in Australia, archives that Aboriginal Juveniles were the ones going through a tremendous amount of racist language by the law enforcement agency and police and “in general 90% of Aborigines respondents protested of the use of racist language by police officers… The language supposedly used by the police officers contained within words such as black bastard’, ‘Abo’, ‘black dog’, ‘coon’, ‘Niggers’ and ‘black sluts’.” (Cunneen, 2008) A recurrent subject in the history of arguments in regards to public order lawmaking in Australia has been worried about the manner in which Aboriginal people have been treated. Jochelson’s research specifies ” more in recent times, specific reference has been made to circumstances where an arrest for a single minor offence such as aggressive language or violent behavior, enflames dispute with police leading to further serious charges for instance resisting arrest and then assaulting the police.” (Pattel-Gray, 2013) Commissioner Wootten in the investigation into the death of David Gundy resonance Jochelson’s worries;

“It is certainly time that police learnt to disregard mere abuse, not to mention “bad language.” In this day and age many words that were once looked at as bad language have now turn out to be common place and are overall use in the middle of police no less than among other people”

The horrible rift has become even further among whites and Aborigines because of the racist name calling. The whites see the police using this offensive language so they repeat it without even giving it a second thought. The research does express that racist’s remarks, and stereotypical perceptions and ideas by a mainstream are nothing new to a disadvantaged group. The place of racism can be awful and very extensive in the Australian society especially with the criminal justice system playing a huge part with putting fuel on the fire. In actual fact, “racism is entrenched in every aspect of Australian society.

Researchers argue that any fair reader of the pages of discrimination in the direction of Aboriginal individuals all through the criminal justice processes would recognize a sense of unrest, even disgrace, at the way in which the Australian criminal system has functioned in association to Aboriginal Australians. Nonstop racism towards Indigenous individuals regularly results in an increase of violence which causes a rift between the two communities.

Research shows according to McGlade (2012) the criminal system in Australia is not fair towards the Aboriginal people, and that it is obvious that the society is biased towards the them. Some experts argue that the criminal system makes Aboriginal people look like they are uncivilized individuals that know nothing but crime. As stated by Pattel-Gray (2013) the white community feels justified for their conduct due to the expressed racism by the media, the court and police. For example, incidents have occurred all through Australia, in a further case study of Eddie Betts, (Marmo, 2012) Eddie was the sixteenth Aboriginal to die in police custody because of racial profiling and discrimination. (McGlade, 2012)

The death of Edward Murray in Wee Waa is surely an additional killing in custody to reflect distrustful situations by police custodial officers. This is the same in the killing of Mark Quayle, the Coroner’s conclusions described for both these deaths were stated during the course of the commission that they were killed from people that were not known. The Redfern attacks in February, 1990 which had something to do with 135 police from the Tactical Response arrived before the break of dawn (Anthony, 2012). Studies show that the defense of the raid had been allegedly lead at request from the community over worries about the rising occurrences of heroin and crime abuse in the region throughout the preceding four months. Unpredictably on this point, it is worth bearing in mind that from the existing evidence it looks as if the raid netted one charge for the use of drugs,.” (Marmo, 2012) These incidents reported by the criminal department have caused more of a rift in the white community because it has depicted the aboriginal community as criminals. The white incidents of crime appear to be dumbed down according some law professionals. Other experts believe that the spot light appears to shine more on the Aboriginal community on purpose.

Function of the Specialist Indigenous Courts

When it comes to the Specialist Indigenous Courts, they have the role of catering to the special needs of specific service users. Here, they are responsible of the tribunals which can improve responsiveness and help in easing the amount of work of courts — for example, small claims tribunals are the ones that are able to assist in avoiding work from the magistrates’ court. Now justifications for, explanations of, and evaluations of Indigenous sentencing courts are varied and come from many sources. (McGlade, 2012) Not rarely, explanation and critique of these courts tends to involve efforts at evaluation and assessment from a range of different viewpoints, occasionally to the point of conflation. According to some professionals, they believe that Victoria has opted to spend money on a sensitive, feely criminal court intended to give soft justice to Aboriginal & #8230; criminal. According to the white community, they think that this is a stupid waste of money.

Faris makes the argument that the very existence of Indigenous courts establishes an obnoxious legal dualism and a breach of the rule of law (Douglas, 2012). He states that the clear repercussion of the Specialist Indigenous Courts is that Indigenous offenders will get sentences that are more lenient or a slap on the hand in comparison to non-Indigenous offenders in parallel cases.

In conclusion, it is clear that there is a bleeding rift between black and while communities and so far there does not seem to be much progress due to the racism that comes from the white community. Even the function of the specialist indigenous courts have become under fire because some believe that they are not effective or strict enough. It is obvious that Precisely, Indigenous sentencing courts have the prospective to authorize Indigenous communities, to bend and change the leading viewpoint of ‘white law’

References

Anthony, T. (2012). Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment. New York City: Routledge; 1 edition.

Atkinson, J. (2005). Trauma Trails, Recreating Song Lines . Spinifex Press.

Braithwaite, J. (2002). Restorative Justice & Responsive Regulation (Studies in Crime and Public Policy) . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cunneen, C. (2008). Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police. Allen & Unwin.

Douglas, H. (2012). Indigenous Crime and Settler Law: White Sovereignty after Empire (Palgrave Macmillan Socio-Legal Studies). Chicago: Palgrave Macmillan .

Marmo, M.D. (2012). Crime and Justice: A Guide to Criminology, 4th ed. Sydney: Thomson Lawbook Text .

Marshall, D. (2012). Aboriginal Australians (Indigenous Peoples). Sydney: Weigl Publishers.

McGlade, H. (2012). Our Greatest Challenge: Aboriginal Children and Human Rights. Sydney: Aboriginal Studies Press .

Pattel-Gray, A. (2013). The Great White Flood: Racism in Australia: Critically Appraised from an Aboriginal Historico-Theological Viewpoint (American Academy of Religion Cultural Criticism Series). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sharp, A. (2002). Indigenous Peoples of the World – Australia. New York city: Lucent Books; 1 edition.