Indigenous Australians are both convicted of crimes and imprisoned at a disproportionately higher rate in Australia, as well as being over-represented as victims of crime. , Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28% of the total adult prisoner population, while accounting for 2% of the general adult population (3.3% of the total population). Various explanations have been given for this over-representation, both historical and more recent. Federal and state governments and Indigenous groups have responded with various analyses, programs and measures.
Background
Many sources report over-representation of Indigenous offenders at all stages of the criminal justice system. Also by chapter in html, see Chapter 2 , Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28% of the total adult prisoner population, while accounting for 3.3% of the general population. Overrepresentation of indigenous people in crime statistics is not unique to Australia, indeed, in nearby New Caledonia and New Zealand their respective prison populations are approximately 90% Kanak and 52% Māori, respectively.
The links between lower socioeconomic status and the associated issues that come with it (inadequate housing, low academic achievement, poor health, poor parenting, etc.) to all types of crime are well-established, if complex,Wild and Anderson, p.223 (Whole document here.) and disadvantage is greater in Indigenous communities than non-Indigenous ones in Australia.
These reasons have been well documented, as pointed out by National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) and the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (ALSWA). According to ALSWA these "have been repeatedly examined by numerous federal and state inquiries", and the reasons fall into two categories: "The first category are underlying factors that contribute to higher rates of offending (e.g., socio-economic disadvantage, the impact of colonisation and dispossession, Stolen Generations, intergenerational trauma, substance use disorder, homelessness and overcrowding, lack of education and physical and mental health issues). The second category is structural bias or discriminatory practices within the justice system itself (i.e., the failure to recognise cultural differences and the existence of laws, processes, and practices within the justice system that discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against Aboriginal people such as over-policing practices by Western Australia Police, punitive bail conditions imposed by police and inflexible and unreasonable exercises or prosecutorial decisions by police)."
A submission by Mick Gooda to a 2016 government report emphasised that the rates of crime and incarceration of Indigenous people could not be viewed separately from history or the current social context. He referred to Don Weatherburn's work, which showed four key risk factors for involvement in the criminal justice system: poor parenting (particularly child neglect and abuse); poor school performance and/or early school leaving; unemployment; and substance use. Indigenous Australians fare much worse than non-Indigenous citizens in relation to these four factors, and mental illness, including foetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and overcrowded housing also play a part.
By category
Violent crime The main source of information on homicides is the National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP), which was established in 1990 at the Australian Institute of Criminology. A 2001 study by Jenny Mouzos, using data from 1 July 1989 to 30 June 2000, showed that 15.7% of homicide offenders and 15.1% of homicide victims were Indigenous, while census statistics showed the rate of indigeneity of the population at around 2% in 2000 (since found to be too low a figure). The statistics were imperfect also because NHMP data is gathered from police records, which may not always identify race accurately, but an earlier review had reported "...although the statistics are imperfect, they are sufficient to demonstrate the disproportionate occurrence of violence in the Indigenous communities of Australia and the traumatic impact on Indigenous people.(Memmott et al. 2001, p. 6)". The study reported that the homicides were largely unpremeditated, and most occurred within the family environment, with alcohol involved.Mouzos, Jenny. , Australian Institute of Criminology, June 2001, accessed 11 November 2010. by WebCite on 11 November 2010. . ISSN 0817-8542. See accompanying webpage here, archived 11 November 2010.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Task Force on Violence (2000, p. ix) reported that "The high incidence of violent crime in some Indigenous communities, particularly in remote and rural regions, is exacerbated by factors not present in the broader Australian community...Dispossession, cultural fragmentation and marginalisation have contributed to the current crisis in which many Indigenous persons find themselves; high unemployment, poor health, low educational attainment and poverty have become endemic elements in Indigenous lives...".
Age-standardised figures in 2002 showed that 20% of Indigenous people were the victims of physical or threatened violence in the previous 12 months, while the rate for non-Indigenous people was 9%.4102.0 – Australian Social Trends, 2005: Crime and Justice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: Contact with the Law, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 12 July 2005, accessed 11 November 2010. by WebCite on 11 November 2010. In 2011–2012, the percentage of Aboriginal homicide offenders decreased to 11% and victims to 13%.
Family violence The 2001 homicide study found that most occurred within the domestic setting.
In 2002 the Western Australia government looked into the issue and conducted an inquiry, known as the Gordon Inquiry after its lead investigator, Aboriginal magistrate Sue Gordon. The report, Putting the picture together: Inquiry into response by government agencies to complaints of family violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities, said that "[t]he statistics paint a frightening picture of what could only be termed an 'epidemic' of family violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities."
Family violence and sexual assault were at "crisis levels" in the Indigenous community in 2004, according to Monique Keel of the Australian Institute of Family Studies. (HTML version here)
Child abuse The incidence of child abuse in Indigenous communities, including sexual abuse and neglect, is high in comparison with non-Indigenous communities. However, the data is limited, with most coming from child protection reports.Wild and Anderson, pp. 234, 239. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare gathered data for 2008–2009 on children aged 0–16 who were the subject of a confirmed child abuse report. It showed that Indigenous children accounted for 25% of the reports, despite making up only 4.6% of all Australian children; there were 37.7 reports per 1,000 of Indigenous children and 5 reports per 1,000 of non-Indigenous children, that is, Indigenous children were 7.5 times more likely to be the subject of a child abuse report.Berlyn and Bromfield, p. 1.
A 2010 report showed that child sexual abuse was the least common form of abuse of Indigenous children, in contrast to media portrayals. Incidents of all types of child abuse in Indigenous communities may be under-reported, for several possible reasons, including fear of the authorities; denial; fears that the child may be taken away; and social pressure.Berlyn and Bromfield, p. 2.
The 2007 Little Children are Sacred report cited evidence that "child maltreatment is disproportionately reported among poor families and, particularly in the case of neglect, is concentrated among the poorest of the poor", and that socio-economic disadvantage is "closely related with family violence, being both a cause of child abuse... and a form of child abuse and neglect in itself". The Indigenous community is significantly poorer than the non-Indigenous community in Australia.Wild and Anderson, p. 224.
The Australian Human Rights Commission's Social Justice Report 2008 said that, despite the likelihood of under-reporting, the 2005−2006 ABS statistics for confirmed child abuse did not appear to support the "allegations of endemic child abuse in NT remote communities that was the rationale for the Northern Territory National Emergency Response".
Alcohol use There is a link between alcohol use disorder and violence in Indigenous communities, but the relationship is complex and it is not straightforward causality.Wild and Anderson, p. 226. Some of the "underlying issues associated with alcohol use and dependence [include] educational failure, family breakdown, the lack of meaningful employment and economic stagnation" (Homel, Lincoln & Herd 1999; Hazelhurst1997).
The 2001 homicide study reported that over four out of five Indigenous homicides involved either the victim or offender or both, drinking at the time of the incident.
A 2019 report shows a decline in the use of alcohol, with a greater abstention rate than among non-Indigenous people, as well as in tobacco use.
Illicit drug use
There is a link between illicit drugs and crime. The 2004 Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) annual report found that "37 percent of police detainees attributed some of their criminal activity to illicit drug use". However the relationship is complex. The drugs most often associated with violent crime (including domestic violence) in the whole Australian population are alcohol and methamphetamine.
Data from 2004–2007 showed that illicit drug use by Indigenous people over 14 years old was about twice as high as that of the general population. The data showed that 28% of Indigenous people aged 15 and above in non-remote areas had used illicit drugs in the previous 12 months, while the rate for non-Indigenous people in that age group in all areas was 13%. The illicit drugs most used by Indigenous people are cannabis, amphetamines, analgesics, and ecstasy. The increased usage may be related to the history of dispossession of Indigenous people and their subsequent socioeconomic disadvantage. Since the 1980s cannabis use by Indigenous people has increased substantially. Originally published as published as: Catto, M., & Thomson, N. J. (2008). Review of illicit drug use among Indigenous peoples. Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin, 8(4), 32p.
A 2006 study investigating drug use among Indigenous people in remote and rural communities showed that, while alcohol remained the primary concern, the "often heavy use of cannabis and increasing signs of amphetamine use" was having a negative impact on the communities. Drug offences constituted a very small proportion of charges in rural communities, but substance use primarily involved alcohol, cannabis, petrol and other solvents, and, increasingly, amphetamines.
A 2019 review reported that in 2016, 27% of Indigenous Australians used an illicit drug in the previous year, which was 1.8 times higher than for non-Indigenous Australians, at 15.3%. Cannabis use was especially prevalent: 19.4% had used cannabis in the last 12 months (1.9 times higher than non-Indigenous Australians, at 10.2%). 10.6% of Indigenous people had used a pharmaceutical for non-medical use (non-Indigenous 4.6%) and 3.1% had used methamphetamines (non-Indigenous 1.4%). The relationship to crime was not included in this report.
The relationship between use of illicit drugs and crime, excluding possession of the drug, is not clear. Arrests of consumers (whole Australian population) still constituted around 80% of all arrests in 2009–10, and cannabis-related crimes accounted for 67%.
Victims of crime