Lloyd James Boney's Pathway to Crime or Conflict with the Law - Essay Example

Running Head: RACE, CRIME AND JUSTICE Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade/Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 19, 05, 2011 Lloyd James Boney 1. Description of life and circumstances (biographical details) Lloyd was an Australian born in an area known as Walgett. After birth, he moved to Goodooga where he spent his childhood stage. He later moved to Brewarrina where he spent most of his adulthood life and this is where he also died. The three areas are located 120 to 150 kilometers from each other and they all appear in the far north west of New South Wales in Australia. Brewarrina was full of rich grasslands and was invaded by the whites around 1850s leading to conflicts with the Aboriginals that saw many people massacred. With time, Aboriginals were drawn into the pastoral industry and became part of the laborers as well as shearers on the big runs around Brewarrina. The mission turned out to be harsh and full of authoritative rules. Despite this, Aboriginals defied these rules and went ahead to hold political gatherings to maintain their own active community life despite the bans imposed on them to stop speaking their local language and other attempts to limit them from expressing their traditional culture (Cowlishaw, 1988). After noticing the rising population of Aboriginals, Racism started on a high note where the Brewarrina town council imposed segregation on schools and hospitals and police ordered to keep Aboriginals off the streets of the town after 6pm. This was life full of intimidation, violence and racism for Aboriginals. The cramping and dismantling of the pastoral industry due to growing population saw many Aboriginals and some working class whites loose their job. The whites tended to leave for factory jobs while the Aboriginals remained in Brewarrina due to their attachments on land and families. Many Aboriginals became jobless and this led to very poor economic conditions despite improvements in social services. This is the context within which Lloyd was born with Aboriginal parents (Thomas James Boney and Maria Murray) around 1958. Lloyd and his sister were left with their father since their parents separated at his younger age. His father was not financially stable since he was just a seasonal worker unable to care for the children who then moved to their father’s sister (Priscilla Boney and Arthur Hooper). Lloyd grew up with the two and often recognized them as his parents. He later moved with them to Brewarrina since such informal adoptions are common in the society of Aboriginals where kinship ties and networks are in form of institutionalized welfare systems (Dally, 2003). Lloyd never attracted attention of child welfare authorities and was never taken into care of the state thus lack of institutional and departmental documentation about his life. Lloyd attended Goodooga central school starting from kindergarten until the first year of high school (seventh class). His educational achievements appeared limited since he was not able to write and read well as he arranged for others to write letters for him while in prison. He left school when he was about 15 years and started working as a seasonal laborer. In his adulthood, Lloyd formed relationship with Grace Wilson whom they stayed together and managed to bear a son. He loved the son so much and always wanted to be close to his wife and the son despite court orders to stay away due to violence. The relationship that existed between Lloyd and his wife can be best described as alternate of violence and reconciliation. During his adulthood, he started living a life full of drunkenness (alcohol), violence, resistance to arrest, assault and breaching of bail/probation which saw him land in the hands of criminal justice on several repeated occasions. In fact, it is the breaching of the bail that saw him eventually arrested on his last day that he died (Wootten, 1991). 2. RCIADIC explanations for Lloyd’s pathway to crime or conflict with the law Just a year before Lloyd left school, he came into contact with the law where he was convicted of breaking, entering and stealing. He was legally represented by Peter Tobin from the aboriginal legal services who managed to secure him a release on probation and on condition that he continues to attend school and be of good behavior. Five years later (when he was about twenty years in 1978), he again found himself before the court for stealing fox skins and rifles from a car after which he was given two years bond. In the same year, he was imprisoned for six months with a fine for traffic offences (illegally using a motor car and driving under influence). He had only recently moved to Brewarrina town and this was the first time to appear before the town’s court. His attempts to run away did not bear fruits and made him acquire a reputation as a runner in the hands of law. This is the time when alcohol came into picture since the police indicated that he could not stand on his two feet at the time of arrest. This period also revealed his serious health problem (epilepsy) following records by Goodooga Hospital from 1969 onwards. He frequently suffered fits and this condition became worse since he was not following medical prescriptions and was drinking heavily. He also had a habit of escaping from hospital either brought in or out by the police. It is the alcohol that became the major cause of his frequent conflicts with the law. After heavy drinking, Lloyd was arrested on several occasions either causing violence, conflicts with his wife and other public disturbances. The other major pathway to his conflict with law was his character of disobedience. He never used to obey the law even after being given bails on several occasions. He always breached bail conditions and this made the criminal justice system to tighten its conditions even harder. It is this continued failure to disobey bail rules and continuous breaching of bail conditions that led to the arrest that caused his eventual death in Brewarrina following a case filed against him by his wife over violence/assault (RCIADIC National Report, 2001). 3. Identification and analysis of five major factors that explain Lloyd’s pathway to crime or conflict with the law The first factor that explains Lloyd’s pathway to crime and conflict with the law is alcoholism. The use of alcohol is actually facilitates committing criminal offences and it may as well bring in youth for under-age drinking. The commission has evidence showing that the use of harmful or intoxicating substances is highly considered as a factor behind juvenile crime especially in certain Australian communities like the Aboriginal. In this case, alcohol plays a role as a facilitator or a mediator substance in crime rather than itself as a criminal offense which comes only if taken by people who have not yet attained legal age. According to the commission’s report, excessive consumption of alcohol and other intoxicating substances has been linked with destruction of users’ health and other community members affected, family threatening and also led to arrest and imprisonment. Several studies have indicated a clear relationship between alcohol consumption and committing of crimes that come to attention of the judicial system. There are several observers who have noted and justified this in studies carried out in Aboriginal community (Bolger, 1991). Referring to our case of Lloyd, it is indeed evident that alcohol really contributed to a bigger portion of his conviction and pathway to the conflict with the law, crimes and imprisonment. From the report, there are several occasions where Lloyd was imprisoned for excessive drinking and driving. He was convicted for breaking traffic rules under the influence of alcohol. More so, he was arrested on several occasions for causing violence, assaulting his wife, stealing and offering resistance to arrest while under alcohol influence. Trials to put him on rehabilitation while on bail failed due to his continued disobedience and over consumption of alcohol which made him eventually arrested on the occasion that resulted to his death (Memmott et al., 2001). The second factor that explains Lloyd’s pathway to crime and conflict with the law is the Aboriginal family and the undermining of social and cultural controls. The Aboriginal families have been subject to history of disruption, institutionalization and intervention which have left many families incapable of controlling or caring for their children. This has seen juvenile crimes grow into a major social problem with evidence of the experiences of those who died in custody. Lack of parental control for any child actually sets a negative background of social forces. Poor educational background, social and economic circumstances contributes a lot to poor self esteem amongst the youths. If this background is evident, children tend to undermine their parents and view them from an inferior position (Dally, 2003). In this case, it is clearly evident that Lloyd’s parents lost control over him at a younger age due to family problems. First, his parents separated when he was still at a tender age and was left with his father. Given that his father was financially incapable of supporting him and his sister, the two completely lost contact with parents after being given away to their uncle who brought them up. Such background of lack of real parental guidance, poor livelihood and lack of other essential family support led to Lloyd’s loss of morale and self esteem. He performed poorly in school, dropped out of school and because of poverty, he engaged in criminal activities like breaking, entering and stealing which led to his conflict with the law (RCIADIC National Report, 2001). The third factor that explains Lloyd’s pathway to crime and conflict with the law is the social economic factors. These factors are closely related to social cultural factors above but have a different implication. The social economic factors are normally the critical determinants of criminal offences. Lack of employment, education and high poverty levels are social economic indicators of crime levels in a given area. In most cases, such areas have got most youths in lower economic brackets. Poverty seems to be closely related to police notice since high apprehension rates are recorded highly in places with poor economic conditions. Economic crimes also include illegal use of things like vehicles. Such crimes appear high in areas where there is no means of transport thus tempting youths to engage in illegal use of motor vehicles (Ogilvie & VanZyl, 2001). In our case, the social economic conditions under which Lloyd grew up actually contributed to his pathway to conflicts with the law. Being an Aboriginal, he was unable to benefit from the schooling system which seemed to be full of racism and never allowed any one from the community to successful excel. This made him drop out of school with no skills thus making him become an unskilled laborer. This did not earn him a good life afterwards and thus engaged in alcoholism as a way of relieving stress. While in school, he was unable to get enough support due to the poor living standards thus tempted to break, enter and steal. He was also arrested on several occasions for illegal use of motor car together with breaking of traffic rules (Brady, 1992). The fourth factor that explains Lloyd’s pathway to crime and conflict with the law is peer influence. “This is a situation where crimes are committed with an assumption that other people of the same status are also doing the same” (RCIADIC National Report, 2001, p.7). In this case, it is evident that most of Aboriginal youths are more or less undergoing the same penalties with the judiciary. This might have been a factor or an influence that led to Lloyd’s continual defiance and committing of crimes. The fifth factor that explains Lloyd’s pathway to crime and conflict with the law is the institutionalized racism. This is where racism is so high that the general actions of indigenous people may be defined as “deviant” by the state and individuals. Indigenous people react to the situation defiantly, by using violence as a means of resistance. In this case, Lloyd was conflicted with the law on most occasions for defiance to follow bail or probation conditions as well as defiance to accept arrest (resistance) (RCIADIC National Report, 2001). 4. Reflection on analysis The life of Lloyd James Boney and his frequent conflict with the law actually fits well with the conventional explanations given in the paper as well as the report by the commission. The main factor that his life and conflict with the law exemplifies is alcoholism (RCIADIC National Report, 2001). This was the beginning of his problems with the judiciary and his health since after drinking, he landed in jail or committed several crimes some of which were due to domestic violence, assaults, stealing, traffic offences among others (RCIADIC National Report, 2001). The alcohol also worsened his epileptic condition since he used not to adhere to medical prescriptions given by the doctor thus leading to frequent flits. Social economic factors and family kinship were also evident. Lloyd lived a poor social economic life with lack of parental control that made him loose morale and develop a low self esteem. These conditions contributed to his contact with the criminal justice (Homel et al., 1999). The criminal justice system offered the Aboriginal youths a respite life due to harsh home conditions and living standards. “This might be the reason why they always came in conflict with the law so that they can be imprisoned” (RCIADIC National Report, 2001, p.9). Reflecting on our case, Lloyd was arrested on several occasions without significant change in his behaviour. This meant that he enjoyed being arrested and took his behaviour as a form of recognition.The evidence from the commission clearly indicates high possibilities of crimes caused by juvenile drinking. Alcohol together with other intoxicating substances forms part of the stressful factors that makes it hard for the police to deal with when dealing with youths. Alcohol consumption needs to be controlled by the users as well as the legal authorities. It is a necessity for legal authorities to limit consumption of alcohol by limiting the supply, consumption hours and imposing tough regulatory measures. It is however the mandate of the consumers to control their level of consumption to avoid its consequences. Lack of parental control for any child actually sets a negative background of social forces. Poor educational background, social and economic circumstances contributes a lot to poor self esteem amongst the youths. This is the context within which Lloyd was born and really contributed to his mode of behavior and contact with the criminal justice system. These are some of the factors that facilitate youths to engage in crimes. In conclusion, Lloyd spent most of his life conflicting with the law up to the time when he eventually died. His defiance nature, alcohol influence and social economic/cultural factors were the major contributors to his pathway to the criminal justice (RCIADIC National Report, 2001). His death was uncertain and we have no option other than following what the commission’s report indicates. May be Lloyd himself would have testified or given correct information concerning the incident but was already dead. On the other hand, the police can never give a self incriminating statement even if it is the truth. References Bolger, A. (1991). Aboriginal women and violence: a report for the criminology research council. North Australian research unit, 1(3), 24-38. Brady, M. (1992). Heavy metal: the social meaning of petrol sniffing in autralia. Canberra: Aboriginal studies press. Cowlishaw, G. K. (1988). Black, white or brindle: race in rural Australia. New York: Cambridge University press. Dally, K. (2003). Government policies of protection-segregation and assimilation and their impact on indigenous people. Lect reading, 2(1), 1-10. Homel, et al. (1999). Risk and Resilience: Crime and Violence in Aboriginal Communities. The Australian and New Zealand journal of criminology, 32(2), 182-191. Memmott, P. et al. (2001) Violence in Indigenous Communities: Causes of violence. Criminology research journal, 1(4), 10-32. Ogilvie, E., & VanZyl, A. (2001). Young indigenous males, custody and the rites of passage. Australian institute of criminology, 1(204), 1-6. RCIADIC National Report. (2001), The Reasons for Offending. Commission’s report, 2(14), 1- 11 Wootten, J.H. (1991). Australia, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Report of the Inquiry into the Death of Lloyd James Boney, 1(1) 1-27. Read More