Description

Whilst sexual assault and child abuse within the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities receives the most attention from the media and from government programs, it is the lower level-type offending that is both the most pervasive and the most responsible for criminalisation of Aboriginal people. Drawing from Johnathon Simon’s ‘governing through crime’ concept, it is enforced that crime itself is governed through greater policing and penalties for minor crimes. It is addressed how the technologies, discourses and metaphors of crime that legitimized the Northern Territory Intervention from 2006 had an impact on the policing of minor driving offences. The impact that the Intervention had on Indigenous communities is emphasized, relating back to theoretical models to explain why governance of crime can affect communities adversely.