Estimating the extent and nature of offending by Sudanese-born individuals in Victoria

AuthorBenjamin L Spivak,Stephane M Shepherd
Published date01 September 2020
Date01 September 2020
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0004865820929066
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Estimating the extent
and nature of offending
by Sudanese-born
individuals in Victoria
Stephane M Shepherd and
Benjamin L Spivak
Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of
Technology, Victoria, Australia
Abstract
The involvement in crime of some young Sudanese-born Victorians has received sustained
public attention in recent years. The media coverage of these occurrences has been exten-
sive, with some outlets criticised for sensationalist reporting and prejudiced undertones. A
range of views were held across the commentariat including, for example, the notion that
Sudanese-Victorian criminal involvement has been overstated; that some level of justice over-
representation was inevitable due to the demographics of Sudanese-born Victorians, which
skew young and male (i.e. the demographic hypothesis); and that offending rates may be
associated with heightened law enforcement responses following a high-profile criminal inci-
dent in March 2016 that received protracted media coverage and political commentary (i.e.
the racial-profiling hypothesis). This paper sought to address these contentions by (i) exam-
ining the offending rates of both young and adult males across three cultural sub-groups (i.e.
Sudanese-born, Indigenous Australian, Australian-born) across several offending categories
between 2015 and 2018 and (ii) exploring the impact of a high-profile criminal incident in
March 2016, on the offending rates of Sudanese-born Victorians. Offending rates were cal-
culated using offender incident data from the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency and popu-
lation estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data. Findings indicate that
Sudanese-born individuals figure prominently in both youth and adult offending categories
relative to other major cultural sub-groups. Rates for ‘crimes against the person’ were
especially pronounced for Sudanese-born youth and significantly higher than rates for
Corresponding author:
Stephane M Shepherd, Swinburne University of Technology, 505 Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, Victoria 3068, Australia.
Email: sshepherd@swin.edu.au
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2020, Vol. 53(3) 352–368
!The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865820929066
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crimes more subject to police discretion (i.e. public order offences). The ‘demographic
hypothesis’ did not hold for the specified age range of 10 to 17 years. An increase in offending
was observed post-March 2016 across two offending categories for Sudanese-born
Victorians. Findings are contextualised within.
Keywords
South-Sudanese, Sudanese, youth crime, youth offending, youth violence
Date received: 3 May 2020; accepted: 3 May 2020
Australia is home to more than 30,000 people of Sudanese heritage (Australian Bureau
of Statistics [ABS], 2016). Many re-settled in Australia between 2002 and 2007 through
humanitarian programs following civil unrest in Sudan (Lucas et al., 2011). While the
bulk of Sudanese Australians have become valued members of Australia’s multicultural
community, many have faced a number of pre- and post-settlement challenges which
have been outlined in prior research. Pre-migratory experiences including displacement,
family fragmentation, severe life disruption, interrupted educational/vocational histories
and exposure to violence often preceded post-settlement integration challenges charac-
terised by f‌inancial hardship, low English language prof‌iciency, unemployment, accul-
turation diff‌iculties and unstable housing (Abdelkerim & Grace, 2012; Correa-Velez &
Onsando, 2009; Hatoss & Huijser, 2010; Hebbani, Obijiofor, & Bristed, 2012, 2009;
Khawaja et al., 2008; Milner & Khawaja, 2010; Savic et al., 2013; Schweitzer et al., 2006,
2007; Shepherd, 2016; Shepherd et al., 2018; Tempany, 2009). These co-existing social
challenges have coincided with high rates of justice involvement, particularly among
adolescent and young adult Sudanese Australians (see Shepherd et al., 2018). In the
south-eastern state of Victoria, where approximately one-third of Sudanese Australians
reside (ABS, 2016), high rates of offending by young Sudanese-born Australians have
been reported across selected offending categories (i.e. aggravated robbery, aggravated
burglary, assault, riot/affray) over the past three years (Crime Statistics Agency, 2018a;
Shepherd et al., 2018). Between 2015 and 2018, South Sudanese and Sudanese-born
individuals combined possessed an offender to population rate of 7, which was higher
than the Australian-born rate of 1.1 (Goldsworthy, 2018). Across 2017–2018, young
people with African ancestry comprised 19% of young people in custody in Victoria –
the bulk of which were believed to be of Sudanese ancestry (State of Victoria, 2018).
Evidence from 2017 (Armytage & Ogloff, 2017) and earlier (2011 to 2013) pointed to a
growing over-representation of Sudanese-Victorian youth (over 4%) in youth custodial
settings (Shepherd et al., 2014). At the adult level, Sudanese-born Australians have
possessed the highest rate of incarceration nationwide since 2014, aside from
Indigenous Australians (ABS, 2014). Evidence suggests that rates have increased sub-
stantially between 2014 and 2017 (ABS, 2017a).
Shepherd and Spivak 353

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