Pathways to offending for young Sudanese Australians

DOI10.1177/0004865817749262
Published date01 December 2018
Date01 December 2018
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Pathways to offending for
young Sudanese Australians
Stephane M Shepherd
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Danielle Newton
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Karen Farquharson
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Abstract
Many Sudanese Australians have faced re-settlement challenges since migrating to Australia
from the late 1990s onwards. Challenges have included language barriers, obtaining stable
housing, acquiring employment, acculturative stressors and discrimination. Moreover, many
have been exposed to pre-migratory traumas and family fragmentation. Despite these diffi-
culties, the vast majority of Sudanese Australians have integrated successfully into the fabric
of Australian society. Yet a small number of young Sudanese Australians are at-risk for
violence and other criminal activities, resulting in their over-representation in the criminal
justice system. These circumstances have been the subject of sustained sensationalised media
coverage in Australia. However, little academic attention has been afforded to these matters.
This study aimed to address this gap in the literature by identifying the self-reported life
experiences and offending patterns of Sudanese-Australian youth in custody. Findings illumi-
nated a number of key risk factors for justice system contact and opportunities for
intervention.
Keywords
Discrimination, migration, minority health, offending, Sudanese Australians, youth violence
Date received: 17 August 2017; accepted: 23 November 2017
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
2018, Vol. 51(4) 481–501
!The Author(s) 2017
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865817749262
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In March 2016, sequences of violent activity described as rioting and brawling between
rival groups of youth, disrupted Melbourne’s Moomba festival, a popular annual public
event (Galloway, Doherty, Jefferson, & Buttler, 2016). Most of the violence was attrib-
uted to one of the groups involved, described as ‘Apex’, which has been characterised as
a loosely connected network of predominantly South Sudanese young people (Mills &
Houston, 2016). The public nature of the incident generated a subsequent wave of
negative media coverage and political commentary. Further violent offending attributed
to youth alleged to be members of Apex, fuelled ongoing media attention. One
Melbourne-based news outlet reportedly ran 173 stories (including 28 front pages)
referencing Apex during the year following the Moomba event (Watkins & Sood,
2017). Accordingly, the public discourse concerning Apex has often been both sensa-
tionalised and racialised in nature (Kelly, 2016). This has endured despite a measured
response from Victoria police who asserted that the Apex gang was not predominantly
Sudanese, that it comprised youth from several different cultural backgrounds, and that
it had been disbanded in 2017 (Farnsworth, 2017). Reports analysing the media cover-
age of Sudanese Australians have found numerous instances where media reports, past
and present, associate ‘Sudanese’ or ‘African’ refugees, integration diff‌iculties and crim-
inal behaviour (Chingaipe, 2017; Gatt, 2011; Windle, 2008). These narratives have
engendered calls for tighter immigration policies and law and order justice initiatives
by members of the Australian parliament and sections of the public (Chingaipe, 2017;
Gatt, 2011; Nolan, Burgin, Farquharson, & Marjoribanks, 2016; Windle, 2008). Similar
sentiment has occurred in response to previous incidents involving Sudanese youth, for
instance, the murder of a young male, Liep Gony, in Melbourne in 2007 (Due, 2008;
Nolan, Farquharson, Politoff, & Marjoribanks, 2011; Nunn, 2010). The potential crim-
inalising effect of such coverage on the Sudanese Australian population has been the
subject of academic attention (Baak, 2011; Centre for Multicultural Youth [CMY],
2014; Collins & Reid, 2009; Coventry, Dawes, Moston, & Palmer, 2015; Hanson-
Easey & Augoustinos, 2010; Hebbani, Obijiofor, & Bristed, 2012; Windle, 2008). Yet
little has been written academically on the pathways to offending for young Sudanese
Australians, a function often left to a less discerning media. As such, a prudent consid-
eration of young Sudanese Australian involvement in crime and the conditions prompt-
ing law breaking behaviour is warranted.
Off‌icial youth crime statistics from the state of Victoria indicate that Sudanese-born
individuals are responsible for only a small proportion of overall crime (CMY, 2014;
Farnsworth & Wright, 2016; Joint Standing Committee on Migration, 2017). However,
some evidence suggests that there have been increases in criminal activity over the past 2
years for the group, with overrepresentation in particular offending categories including
car theft, affray, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery (Farnsworth & Wright,
2016; Joint Standing Committee on Migration, 2017). Victorian police data from 2010
to 2012 show that Sudanese-born youth are approximately f‌ive to seven times more
likely to be processed by police compared to other youth (see CMY, 2014). Despite
comprising approximately 0.2% of the overall Victorian population, Sudanese-born
youth comprised 2% of young people serving youth justice orders between 2011 and
2012 (see CMY, 2014) and were 4.5% of a representative sample of young males in
custody in Victoria between 2011 and 2013 (Shepherd, Luebbers, Ferguson, Ogloff, &
Dolan, 2014). In 2017, Sudanese young people comprise 4% of Victoria’s youth justice
482 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 51(4)

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