This report presents data on frequencies of deaths in prison custody, and police custody and custody-related operations. The report also presents information about the deceased person including their demographics and […]

The NSW Cannabis Cautioning Scheme commenced in April 2000 and gave police the discretion to formally caution rather than charge adults detected for minor cannabis offences. Cautioned offenders are provided […]

This report outlines the key findings of a research project on a cohort of 2,731 individuals in NSW whose mental health disorders and cognitive disability (MHDCD) diagnoses are known, who […]

This publication reports on the Indigenous Australians with mental health disorders and cognitive disability in the criminal justice system project. The project involved the development of an in-depth representation of […]

This project investigates the transitional and post release needs of Aboriginal women with dependent children who are exiting prison in Western Sydney. It aims to understand their needs; appropriate services […]

This interview with Winsome Matthews, chairperson of the New South Wales Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee, focuses on the implementation of the Committee’s new Aboriginal Justice Plan. The Plan involves a […]

The Inquiry finds the Northern Territory child protection system is in crisis for several reasons: including insufficient resources; the number of notifications of children formally identified as at risk which […]

This paper presents a brief overview of the key diversion programs for Indigenous women currently in operation in Australia, with reference to relevant developments in New Zealand and Canada. It […]

This article seeks to paint the contemporary picture of Indigenous women in custody in Australia. In particular, the article presents and analyses the most recent data available on prisoner numbers, […]

This report is a literature review on Indigenous women’s offending patterns. To date, research in this area has been limited and the report therefore provides an important contribution to growing […]

Chapter 12 examines those key findings of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody most relevant to deaths in police custody and custody-related operations. The extent to which […]

This resource is designed to provide workforce development/capacity building knowledge and strategies for alcohol and other drug interventions that are sensitive to the needs of, and involve, families and children. […]

This report presents the research findings of an in-depth investigation into effective practices for managing conflict involving Indigenous people as part of the Indigenous Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management Case […]

Provides an overview of trends and issues emerging from analysis of data collected by the Australian Institute of Criminology under the National Deaths in Custody Program

This Technical and Background Paper summarises the results of a Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department’s funded project. The project aimed to clarify the contribution of the community night patrol program in […]

This handbook is designed to assist individuals, families, leaders, services and communities to protect Indigenous children from family violence and child abuse by presenting relevant information about these issues in […]

This lecture explores the barriers to achieving the vision of Aboriginal rights to land that were articulated in the Mabo case. These include the re-conceptualising of native title as a […]

Based on a description of traditional methods of Indigenous dispute resolution and an analysis of the ways in which seemingly neutral laws contain and create bias, this chapter describes the […]

A range of legislative models for the delivery of child welfare services to Indigenous communities have developed in a number of countries within different historical and political contexts. In each […]

This article seeks to examine the relationship between the number of Indigenous defendants appearing in the NSW Local Court and the rate of Indigenous recidivism. A simple model of the […]

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are over-represented in child protection and out-of-home care services compared to other children and have been since the first data collation in 1990. In […]

In Smith v The Queen, the High Court ruled that identification evidence based on police inspection of a bank security camera photograph of a hooded, apparently Aboriginal bank robber, was […]

According to the 2006 Census, around three-quarters of Indigenous Australians live in regional areas or major cities. This represents a small, but noticeable increase from previous census years, especially in […]

Policy development in Indigenous affairs often proceeds with dated estimates of population and with little understanding of the likely impact of changing demographic parameters on future Indigenous population size and […]

Data collection needs to be improved to enable sensible life course comparisons either within the Indigenous population or between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. A proposal is made for a ‘hypothetical […]

This article argues that structural racism systematically disadvantages Indigenous peoples in the contemporary politico-legal environment. The most recent example of institutional racism is the Commonwealth Intervention, enacted in 2007, which […]

This guide documents the data of four studies, each of which investigated an aspect of the broader context of aboriginal deaths in custody. The first study (601) surveyed the characteristics […]

The design and implementation of the Commonwealth government’s intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities and the Queensland government’s welfare reform trials in Cape York have been presented as radical departures […]

Engaging Aboriginal communities in the context of family violence, drug and alcohol use in rural and remote Aboriginal communities is a huge topic. In this paper, the author focuses on […]

The policy research aim of this research is to understand the place, house and home needs of Indigenous peoples and how to address these needs through housing and other service […]

This report analyses Indigenous homelessness in the contrasting settings of major cities and regional country town centres. Findings indicate that while the system of kinship obligation prevents much primary homelessness, […]

A key feature of housing careers in Australia has traditionally been the strong correlation between life stage and dwelling type. The non-Indigenous expectation in general terms has been one of […]

Twenty years on from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in Australia the picture appears bleaker than in the early 1990s. This article adopts a post-colonial stance […]

The conference creates an awareness of victim and justice issues for Indigenous people across Australia and New Zealand, particularly in the Northern Territory. A series of positive, solution focussed community […]

This report sets out the framework for a domestic violence prevention initiative specifically targeted towards Indigenous adolescents, their families and communities. It is suited to rural towns with a large […]

This paper seeks to uncover ways to improve youth justice outcomes in Western Australia. Due to the focus on adult correctional initiatives there has been a lack of focus on […]

This paper draws on national and international literature and policy and program evaluations, to establish what is currently known about innovative responses to violence against Indigenous women in Australia, particularly […]

The project brief for this research was to: investigate and document the incidence of systematic racism within the criminal justice system; document the relationship between systematic racism and the over-representation […]

The aim of this project was to explore models of intervention which would respond to the needs of individuals and their families in crisis as a result of Indigenous family […]

This article reports on a study undertaken in three Indigenous communities in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia (WA) intended to develop diversionary strategies for young people with fetal […]

The intention of this discussion paper is to explore best practice issues in relation to Aboriginal Community Patrols in Western Australia in the context of crime prevention and community safety. […]

Wukindi rom is a way of practising dispute resolution, mediation and peace-making among the Yolngu people. Mawul rom is the application of the principles to the Dhurili Clan, to match […]

The South Australia Police Future Directions Strategy, published in 2003, committed its members to maximising participation of diverse community groups in policing programs and strategies. To that end, South Australia […]

These are the PowerPoint slides used as the basis of a conference paper presented at the ‘Cultural healing in criminal justice service delivery: an identification of best practice and innovation […]

Building on the sound basis of our existing statistical program, this paper outlines areas where the ABS could extend and enhance the suite of statistics for understanding the circumstances of […]

Internationally, sentencing research has largely neglected the impact of Indigeneity on sentencing outcomes. Using data from Western Australia’s higher courts for the years 2003-05, we investigate the direct and interactive […]

This article discusses the Federal Government’s intervention into the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in the context of public policy regulating the supply and consumption of alcohol in Indigenous contexts. Alcohol […]

This research report forms part of a submission from the Indigenous Law Centre, University of New South Wales to the Federal Government in relation to its ‘Inquiry into Stolen Wages’. […]

This article reports on the High Court hearing of the Blue Mud Bay case in early December 2007. The legal question tested in this case is whether Northern Territory fishers […]

This article looks at the prevalence and nature of self-reported violence against Aboriginal women in the ten provinces.

These closing remarks provide a summary of views presented at the Mandatory Sentencing Symposium. While there are no constitutional impediments to state laws implementing mandatory sentencing, the practice may be […]

This paper will give a ‘criminological perspective’ on mandatory sentencing. It will however largely avoid the issues of the effect of mandatory sentencing provisions on the judicial process and judicial […]

Explores the attitudes of police and the imposition of bail conditions in an attempt to explain why Indigenous juveniles in NSW are incarcerated at a rate 28 times higher than […]

In 2007, concerns about the exposure of Indigenous children to pornography and links between the use of pornography and sexual abuse of children led the Northern Territory Attorney-General to approach […]

It is widely acknowledged is that Indigenous Australians experience violent victimisation at markedly higher rates than other Australians. However, as in all communities, some individuals, even within the same group, […]

This report presents a descriptive profile of the Koori Court, including contextual information on the background and development of the court and its philosophy, aims and jurisdiction. While Koori Court […]