Book Review: The “Civilising Mission”: Race and the Construction of Crime
| DOI | 10.1177/000486588802100208 |
| Published date | 01 June 1988 |
| Date | 01 June 1988 |
| Author | Kayleen M Hazlehurst |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
124 BOOK REVIEWS (1988) 21
ANZJ
Crim
The "Civilising Mission": Race and the Construction of Crime, Greta Bird, Faculty
of Law, Monash University, Contemporary Legal Issues' Series (1987) 66
pp,
$7.20.
Greta
Bird's purpose, in her mono graph The "Civilising Mission": Race and the
Construction 0/ Crime, is to focus on "aspects of Aboriginal crime as constructed
by the dominant society".
With the exception of riots or affrays, where Bird suggests that attacks on the
police or the public carry an overt political message, Aboriginal crime consists
primarily of offences against good order. However, following the work of Langton
and Foley, Bird contends that Aboriginal public drunkenness and indecent
language can also be interpreted as statements of defiance in the historical context
of subjection and colonialism. The use of alcohol, she insists, is
"a
meaningful
response to a specific form of oppression"; and swearing may be
"part
of a process
of conflict resolution", consistent with customary law principles.
From her survey of seven towns in two States, South Australia and Western
Australia, Bird concludes that Aboriginal Australians today continue to suffer as
"objects of policing". Police uphold and generally share the view of white residents
in towns that Aboriginals do not meet European standards of "civilised" behaviour.
It is this, rather than so called Aboriginal offending patterns, which is the essence
of the problem Bird addresses. Aboriginal hostility, despair and alcoholism, she
argues, can be directly traced to European colonialism, paternalism, and pervasive
contemporary racism.
In her examination of Aboriginal drunkenness and
"the
construction of a drunk
charge", Bird notes that "raeist practices" of segregation
"make
public, and expose
to community disapproval, drinking and associated behaviours in which whites can
engage in private with impunity".
Viewing links between alcohol and crime as unproven, and believing that the
arrest of drunks is prompted more by aesthetics or commercial considerations than
by ethical concerns, Bird argues for a welfare approach rather than continuing
police involvement with the publicly intoxicated.
Here,
and at other points, she stops short of developing constructive proposals.
Her
obvious ambivalence about policy is distilled in the 280th footnote, where it is
conceded that law reforms, liberal magistrates, and dedicated representatives have
improved the material conditions of Aboriginallife but that a"final solution" lies
elsewhere.
Bird's "final theoretical position" is that
"the
granting of 'land rights' is an
important factor in reducing Aboriginal crime". While recognising that this
proposition remains to be demonstrated, the analysis proceeds little further than
denunciation of long documented "raeist practices" and defects in legislation.
At
a time when police, courts and penal systems are perhaps most receptive to
proposals for change to structure or practice, the absence of practical suggestions
is disappointing.
Revelations that might have been extraordinary in Elizabeth Eggleston's time are
not
so compelling today. More is now being asked of academics who scrutinise the
criminal justice system if they wish to be taken seriously by policy makers and
practitioners. In
order
to promote that more enlightened moral and political order,
which Bird and many others would prescribe, researchers need to take
responsibility for providing soundly based proposals for reform and implementation
of reform. They may be surprised to find both within
"the
system" and within the
Aboriginal community itself, many willing participants and supporters.
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