The Barriers Of Indigenous Australian Women Face Within The Criminal Justice System

We are learning that when genuine 'Indigenous' Justice is hiding under the cloak of Western paradigms, we continue to see the rising population of Indigenous peoples--especially Indigenous women--in prisons. Our programs and rehabilitative initiatives remain under Western paradigms, even when painted with the brush of 'restorative' or 'indigenous'

How often do we stop to think about the minorities of this country and how they become involved and are treated in the criminal justice system? I surmise; only some of us will concern ourselves with such details. For some like myself; we might work with individuals of the Aboriginal community or have interacted with members of this group whether through school or work. Canada “had an Aboriginal identity in 2011 of 4 % or 1.4 million people” (Kelly-Scott and Smith, 2015). Of this total there is a gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canada’s Criminal Justice System. This overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the CJS comes as a result of socio economic factors, sentencing reforms, systemic discrimination, education and employment and victimization of Aboriginal women. In partial fulfilment of this course, this paper will address the leading factors which has led to the overrepresentation of this group in the CJS.

Even though Canada is one of the most developed countries in the world, there are still major human right violations that occur on a regular basis. The most prominent violation that occurs is the violence and discrimination against the indigenous women who live in Canada. Native women are seen as less by others for multiple reasons, mainly because they are native, Canadian women whose ancestors have always lived there. Also, there are stereotypes, corruption, and racism in the police force. Even though this is a massive problem it is possible to stop if we raise awareness, provide recourses to victims, and fix governmental corruption. Overall with this monstourus problem looming over Canada there

Honorable Minister Kai, Today I present my provisional report on the Aboriginal incarceration rates. As you know the Prime Minister in his Closing the Gap speech mentioned the indigenous community being deprived of jobs and education, which are important issues that require further investigation. However he hasn’t discussed the high rates of incarcerated indigenous people and the impact, which can have adverse effects on many other aspects such as education and job seeking. I have conducted wide research and gathered extensive data and evidence on the recent statistics graphing the evident difference in the incarceration levels between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

Cunneens (2007) articles showed relative statistics, showing the negative effects of the relationship between the two groups, whether it is one groups wrong doing or not, the evidence shows that there is an issue that needs urgent attention and resolving. “Indigenous people were 17 times more likely to be held in custody than non-Indigenous people in Australia” this raw fact can be looked at from two different perspectives; number one the indigenous community are victimised by the police, or two a major percentage of the indigenous community are being involved in crime. Considering the indigenous population compared to the non indigenous community is so small, it does

Both males and females amongst the aboriginals are overrepresented in the various levels of secured custody. However, based on the enormity of the native involvement in the Canadian Penal System, there

The indigenous youth those between the ages of 10-17, make up 39% of the juvenile justice supervision on any given day during 2010-2011 periods, spite the fact they only make 5% of the entire population of Australian in this age groups. This static shows overrepresentation of indigenous children in this juvenile justice system can partly be attributed large portions of indigenous people living low socioeconomic environments. A Senate inquiry that looked into the conditions of indigenous people found factors such family and community violence, child abuse, drug use and lack of education also contributed to these rates. It also stipulated that historical injustice such colonialization, removal of children from parents and community (Stolen generation),

There are significant challenges faced by both female, and aboriginal offenders in today’s society. These challenges arise most specifically in the community and prison settings. Aboriginal and female offenders face these challenges in different ways, but at the same time they are unified. The community is directly effected, especially when Aboriginal cases have circle sentencing due to the community involvement, and the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system also poses several concerns. Female offenders on the other hand have a higher risk of having administrative, and mental health issues. This paper will address both factions and their individual problems and the reform that is needed within the criminal justice system.

This final paper will be focused on the lives of Aboriginal women past and present. I would like to delve into the history of how their culture switched from a matriarchal society to Aboriginal women losing respect and gaining stereotypes. Through this paper I would like to learn about how these stereotypes have come about, why they exist, and what is being done to stop them. I would like to take in this information for myself, as an educator, to teach children of all cultures that any type of stereotyping is wrong and to teach anyone I can about the knowledge I have gained by writing this paper. To initiate my learning and teaching, I will be using a number of sources. First, to discuss the different stereotypes Aboriginal women have

The Indigenous population still faces numerous inequities and disadvantages within Australia’s education system. There are many complex reasons and factors underlying

However, in Australia, the Indigenous population is disproportionately represented in imprisonment, as Aboriginals only make up three percent of Australia, but thirty percent of the incarcerated population (Korff, J 2014). This is also evident in the number of juveniles currently imprisoned of Indigenous descent, at forty-eight percent of the incarcerated population (Korff, J 2014). Australian Jurisdictions currently do not strike the right balance between imprisonment and community corrections in regards to the Indigenous population. There is an imbalance in sentencing, with imprisonment having little effect on preventing re-offending in Aboriginals. Within two years of release, the re-conviction rate for Indigenous people was at eighty-six percent (Korff, J 2014). In addition, ‘research indicates that time in a juvenile justice centre is the most significant factor in increasing the odds of recidivism (Korff, J 2014).’ It can be seen that many Indigenous people in prison are there because of insufficient community services such as education and health care, but in sentencing, individuality needs to be accounted for, and alternatives to imprisonment provided (Korff, J 2014). Imprisonment should only be used as a last resort, but in the case of the Indigenous population, it seems to be

Australia is known as a first class country, which ranking the 10th in the World Happiness Report in 2015 (Wright, G 2016). Despite such statistics, increasing crime rate, especially Indigenous offending rate, is an ongoing problem for the whole of Australian agencies. From 1998 to 2007, the increasing rate of non-Indigenous prisoner was 94 percent, while there was an astonishing 266 percent rising in Indigenous prisoner numbers (ABS 2007b, cited in Skinner, 2011). It is stated by SCATSIA (2011, cited in

Indigenous individuals have been exposed to numerous traumas for generations. The predominant ones are colonization and residential schools (Monchalin, 2016). The impacts of these catastrophic traumas are immense, and have done a tremendous amount of damage that we now call intergenerational trauma. These impacts have a direct correlation to over-representation of Aboriginal people in the Canadian Criminal Justice System. Moreover, “Commonly identified responses include depression, mental illness, post traumatic stress disorders, addictions to alcohol and drugs, powerlessness, sexual

According to the Australian Bureau Of Statistics Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners accounted for 27% of the total Australian prisoner population, while the total population of Indigenous Australians over the age of 18 years in 2016 was approximately 2% [ABS, 2017 and 2011]. Here we can see a clear inequality in imprisonment rates in Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples as opposed to the non-Indigenous population of Australia.

Hence, Aboriginal people have faced in equality in many different forms in the criminal justice. For instance Aboriginal people experience higher victimization their annual statistics comes to an average of 40 percent when for non- Aboriginal people it is at 28 percent. Leading to higher incarceration rates of Aboriginal incarceration rate at 1,300 per 100,000 which is about ten times more than Canadians (140 per 100,000 adults). So leading causes of overgeneralization of Aboriginal people like this not only because of systematic discrimination by biases in police officers work or the criminal justice system it is also due to things like socio-economic marginality, and colonial experience they have experienced.