Aboriginal Over-Representation in Prisons: What can be Learned from Tasmania?
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589202500204 |
| Author | John J Cove |
| Date | 01 July 1992 |
| Published date | 01 July 1992 |
156 (1992) 25
ANZJ
Crim
ABORIGINAL OVER-REPRESENTATION IN PRISONS:
WHAT CAN
BE
LEARNED
FROM
TASMANIA?
John J Cove-
Introduction
Australian Aborigines, like their counterparts in
other
countries,
are
perceived as a
'special problem' for the criminal justice system.
The
single most importantindicator
of
this status is
their
over-representation in prisons,
one
which goes far beyond the
confines of academic discourse. Studies
of
Aboriginal over-representation have
fuelled political debates on discrimination towards Aborigines,
and
on
the
need
for
special programs
and
state recognition of customary law (Australia, 1980:44-5;
Barry, 1988; Hazlehurst, 1985).
Given
the
significance
of
the
issue, it is surprising how little critical attention has
been
paid to
measures
of
Aboriginal over-representation. With few exceptions
(Sutton, 1984; McDonald
and
Biles, 1990)
these
measures have largely
been
taken
for granted and used as a rationale for research on differential criminal behaviour
and/or differential
treatment
by
the
criminal justice system.
The
results are
interesting in terms
of
findings which are all
too
commonly mentioned
but
seldom
explored systematically. Most obvious are
gender
and
age differences between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal prisoners (Biles, 1989:10; Broadhurst, 1987:162;
Gorta
and
Hunter,
1985:39). More striking is
the
resistance to class analysis in spite
of
similarities between Aborigines
and
non-Aborigines in types of crime when
controlling for socio-economic status (Milne, 1983:185, 187).
Why age,
gender
and
class have
been
given so little attention in contemporary
research on Aborigines is puzzling when those variables
are
basic to criminological
analyses of imprisonment as a general problem. Before this question can be
addressed,
the
effects
that
controlling for
these
variables may have on measures of
Aboriginal over-representation need to be determined. Such a process would be
illustrative
rather
than
definitive
of
the causes
of
over-representation.
The
complexity of this issue is shown by Walker (1987:108-10) who identifies 25 items
bearing on the relationship between
the
criminal justice system
and
Aboriginal
incarceration. Similarly, Waters (1990:40-3) gives four types of relationship which
exist between ascribed status and the class system.
Methodological Issues
The
investigation will focus on Tasmanian
data
from the 1986 National Census and
National Prison Census,
the
only year to
date
when they overlapped
and
where a
serious effort was
made
in
the
former to identify Aborigines
and
cross-check results
(Smyth, 1989:15). As shown in Table 1,
Tasmania
has
the
lowest level
of
Aboriginal
over-representation
of
any State (only
the
NT
and
ACT
are lower), with less than
one-half
the
national level. 1In spite of its ranking,
there
are
a
number
of
reasons for
wishing to concentrate on Tasmania.
The
most important of these is
the
provision
of
an extreme case
of
cultural homogeneity,
both
among
Tasmanian Aborigines and
between them and the wider Tasmanian population.
An
indicator of this dual
homogeneity is the predominance of Tasmanian Aborigines who
are
English only
speakers -98.3% as
compared
to
the
national average of 76.8% (Smyth, 1989:23).
"Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, Canada.
The
Tasmanian
research was undertaken while holding the position of Visiting Senior Researcher, Department of
Sociology, University of Tasmania.
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