CRM307 Exam Notes: weeks 10 - 13

CRM307 Exam Notes: weeks 10 - 13

1. Police & Indigenous people

   • Higher rates of indigenous incarceration due to over representation
   • Cause & effect
     • Limited recognition of aboriginal custodianship
     • Laws/Policies target aboriginals
     • Police involvement in the removal of children
     • Intergenerational impact of trauma/suffering
     • Conscious/unconscious bias
     • Incarceration rates
   • Aboriginal affairs division
     • Engage
       • Work with aboriginals to build respect/trust to attain long term generational change
     • Advocate
       • Ensure agency/community understands/responds to views/interests of eachother
     • Optimise
       • Improve outcomes to progress towards developing safer communitties
   • Crime prevention priorities
     • Addressing & reducing drugs/alcohol related crimes
     • Reducing aboriginal offending & victimisation
     • Reducing youth offending
     • Prevention & early intervention = addressing needs of children/families including preventing FDV
     • Targeting priority crimes

2. Aboriginal incasaration

   • Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
     • Commenced in 1987
     • Findings
       • Ruled out deliberate violence/brutality
       • Lack of duty of care
       • Disproportionate rates of aboriginal deaths
     • Recommendations
       • Directed at eliminating disadvantages & promoting selfdetermination
       • Covered 28 different areas
       • Purpose = avert deaths in custody by suicide/other causes
     • Emphasis on duty of care was most significant
   • Since commission rates of aboriginal imprisonment has increased = 2 arguements
     • Discrimination
     • Committing more crimes & more serious crimes = Weatherburn argument
   • Over-representation within prison system = 2 models seek to explain this
     • Legal system is the problem thus changes to the CJS are warranted
     • Law breakers are the problem thus changes to their circumstances are warranted
     • Most effective response in to address criminality
       • Programs designed around the needs of aboriginals
       • Better reintegration programs
       • More & better interventions

3. Juvenile justice system

   • ATSI significantly over-represented in CJS
   • System overview
     • 1. caution (formal/informal)
     • 2. juvenile justice team = action plan
     • 3. children's court
   • Is criminalising disability & victims of abuse
   • There are international conventions in place to protect the rights of children
     • Best interest of the child is always paramount
     • Allows rights holders to claim their rights
     • Allows duty bearers to fulfil their obligations

4. Readings

   • Week 10 = Murphy & Cherney (2011)
     • Research suggests that if people view police as a legitimate authority they are more likely to cooperate
     • Police legitimacy = 2 aspects
       • Instrumental: performance, deterrence & distributive justice
       • Relational: procedural jsutice
         • Fair procedures = respect & value while unfair procedures = disrespect, marginality & exclusion from a valued group in society
     • Findings of the study
       • Procedural justoce & perceptions of police perfomace predict the perceptions of police legitimacy. This is the same for both ethnic minority & majority groups within Australia. This perception also predicts willingness to cooperate with police.
   • Week 13 - Amnesty international (Anna Farante)
     • Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
       • Recognises that right for indigenous families/communities to secure the wellbeing of their children & to have greater control over decision making in regards to their living & future
     • ATSI have high levels of contact with the CJS because of the broader social/economic disadvantages they face
       • Everyday racism
       • Ongoing legacy of colonisation
     • Number f boys in contact with the CJS is much higher than girls
     • Under international law
       • Fair rights & procedural trials apply to both children & adults equally
         • Additional juvenile justice protections exist under human rights laws = Convention on the Rights of the Child is the primary source of these rights
           • Australia signed & ratified this convention in 1990