The Unfairness of the Criminal Justice System on Aboriginal People - Essay Example

The Unfairness of the Criminal Justice System on Aboriginal People Name Institution The Unfairness of the Criminal Justice System on Aboriginal People Introduction The truth surrounding the unfairness of the criminal justice system may rely on procedures and such processes within the judicial system of a state. With regards to the unfairness in justice system among the Aboriginal People, what comes into focus the instance that seeks to know whether the indigenous people did follow the same law and justice polices plus the protocols in place despite being regarded as injustice to the Aboriginal people (Yannakakis, 2013). Indeed the unfairness of the present criminal justice system traces its history with the establishment of the present Criminal Justice System where it seeks to ensure that there is maintenance of order among the Aboriginal communities. In regards to the same, in the past century, many social researchers from Australia came up with several disciplines in the field of traditional criminology. For instance, traditional criminology remains a subject that draws a lot of criticisms from researchers that take their studies in the field of Indigenous Australian Criminology. The criticisms from these researchers on traditionalist attained its peak in the year 1980s through the establishment of The Royal Commission into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deaths in Custody (Yannakakis, 2013). By the year 1990, the instance acquired a new level that included the combination of both criticism and strong movements championing for the formation of an Indigenous Criminology. With regards to the same, this paper will focus on the unfair acts of criminal justice that the Aboriginal people faced in Australia. History of the Aboriginal People For the past hundred years, Aboriginal people were the main owners of the land of Australia. In the land, the people performed ancient and sacred ceremonies that included those of celebrations and initiations (Babidge, 2010). That said Aboriginal Culture still remains a living culture and the same time continues have an impact in the lives of many communities found in South Wales. As at present, there over twenty million people in Australia however, Aboriginal people are still the minority where there population is just about two percent of the total population. Similarly, most of them do not like residing in towns or large cities and as a result there are unable to have contact with the Indigenous Australians which in this case could lead to their assimilation or integration of their cultures with the indigenous communities. Added to this, the indigenous culture also was not easily visible among the Aboriginal people until the last few years where it began express itself in some of the institutions in the country. Elsewhere, in the period of 1788 to 1909, will forever be significant through the linkages it had on Indigenous people in the Criminal Justice System (Pollock, & Menard, 2015). The reason is because during this time the Australian justice system in place excluded the purpose it had on Indigenous Australian. On a similar note, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission managed to identify the inquiries within the separation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their families (Techera, 2010). For instance, several events resulted in the development of unfairness of justice system and also are still present up to this moment especially with their manifestos that promotes the discriminations on the Indigenous Australians. Following these turn of events, the scope of this paper will be in the focus of the historical disadvantages that lead to the oppression of the Indigenous people due to the instance of criminal justice system. With respect to the same, every headlines presented below, will present the notable impacts on people and their culture, extermination, exclusion as well as exploitation towards the development of a just society. The Colonization The Aboriginal people form New South Wales indeed were the first to suffer the impact brought by settlers from Europe. The settlers for instance had very little recognition to the Aboriginal people where in this case they never considered them as part of human race. Likewise, the early acts of colonization such as the instance of invasions during eighteenth century indeed was the start point for the incidences of massacres as well as the introduction of diseases among the Aboriginal people during this time (Snowball, & Weatherburn, 2007). During the period of 1838s for instance, there was a massive violence clashes that resulted very great cases of massacres among the Aboriginal people. Following this chain of torrid actions against these people, there was the introduction of a bill that sought for the protection of the Aborigines. The bill itself had a draft that constituted the protection of the Aborigines’ just rights and privileges as dictated by her majesty the queen. Missions and Reserves The main objective of missions and reserves were to control the Aboriginal people through restrictions with regard to areas that European settlers had to occupy for farming and other activities (McNab, & Lischke, 2005). For real, the missions and reserves had the same objective since they forced the Aborigines to live by their stated conditions. Though these missions never covered churches, it is the same churches that administered and control these missions and reserves altogether. For instance, missionaries believed that they were civilizing the Aboriginal people through teachings such as hymns, scriptures and trainings concerned with household duties, horticulture, livestock management plus some skilled form of trading. Public Health Act The power on people such as powers of detainment like quarantine, forceful denial of hospitality care and ultimatum screening on infections among all citizens formed the constituent of The Public Health Act 1902 and its regulations (Nancarrow, 2006). With regards to the same, The Aborigine Protection Board as well as Aborigine Welfare Board powers ensured the fulfillment of the regulations stipulated in the Public Health Act. Early Policy Relations with the Aboriginal People Police forces from Australia were from the colonial military administrations due to the convict settlements. For instance, it remained the responsibility of the early police forces to provide the needed assistance to settlers when moving to the interior lands of the country (Canali, Vecchiato, & Whittaker, 2008). Similarly, there were actions with regard to punishments taken on those who opposed the settlement thus leading to the annihilation of most of the Aboriginal people. A good example is the case where the group police applied the control process in the exclusion, extermination and the exploitation of the Aboriginal people for a long time due to paternalistic acts from the government that was in place during those days. Prisons In New South Wales, the Prisons Act of 1840 was also familiar by the English as the separate system. The act itself encompassed the isolation of every prisoner in a different cell from fellows. Similarly, the prisoner would remain in isolation period for twenty four hours daily with the exception of the brief occasions that entailed carrying out silence exercises (McGregor, 2011). Prisoners indeed remained in vogue even up to over a hundred years despite that the conditions of living in the prison was not such favorable for living among the prisoners themselves. On the same note, the administrators of the prisons had not thought over the possible effects of conducting the isolations as well as the mental health effects that such acts had on the prisoner. Indeed, the Aboriginal prisoners had to face this total isolation despite the tough or harsh instances it had on the human life. Current Information in Indigenous Criminology The fact remains that it is far much important to understand the historical cases of the Indigenous Criminology so as to identify its relationship with the disadvantages it brought on the Indigenous people with regards to present criminal justice processes (Day, 2006). Indeed, the issues so far highlighted offers and opportunity in the development and the establishment of the relevant areas concerned with the study on Indigenous Criminology in the country. For instances, the issues identified are to extent reaching the major subject disciplines that relate with thoughts of current knowledge on its own truth. However, it is so unfortunate that those programs or courses concerned with Indigenous Criminology only present a general knowledge (McGrath, 2014). The general knowledge where these programs present is that the experience on the Indigenous people in the world is the instance of marginalization by following cases of segregation or seclusion in certain course materials and frequent lectures over the same. In another incidence, the representation of the Indigenous Australians in the aspect of the criminal justice processes remains the most essential analytical field in research work activities. In this case, the social scientists are also in continuous probation, analysis and data recording of the same (Knafla, & Westra, 2010). Indeed, the reason that explains the inexhaustible nature of the collection of the data in the subject is due the numerous findings available that provide facts supporting the same. For example, one research stresses that, “In the wider context of Australia, the Aboriginal people is twenty seven times more at risk in being taken to police custody compared to the non-Aboriginal people”. The instance in this case further validates on how the Indigenous Australians are such disadvantaged with regards to every element of criminal justice and its procedures. On a related context, another research that focused on the incarceration rates of Aboriginal Australians noted that, “The number of Aboriginal People ever under arrests is always more compared to the non-Aborigines. Similarly, Aboriginal people are the one face charges on good order related crimes as well as also having the wider representation in prisons. To some extent, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody that collected several volumes of data in the evaluation of the case of deaths of ninety nine Aborigines while custody may be formed the core of research within the disadvantaged position Indigenous Australian Criminologists exists (Lackenbauer, Moses, Sheffield, & Gohier, 2010). On a similar note, the findings from the Royal Commission also found out that the deaths of most Aborigines while in custody could be prevented if there were proper considerations taken with regards to the living conditions of the prisoners or health conditions within the cells. The other instance that concerned with the 339 recommendations presented to the Federal, State and the Territory Governments stressed that it was vital to consider the whole implementation of the recommendations from the Royal Commission. On fundamental basis, the core theme from the recommendations was the deployment of the self determination Indigenous People and Law Enforcements Indigenous Criminology may be complicated to disassociate from the present political issues that rotates upon the Indigenous issues as well as the criminal justice system (Burke, 2013). Considering the instance of the Indigenous People and Law Enforcement, in this case the Indigenous Criminology provides the conceptual approach in the Aborigines as well as police as the critical topic that leads to the understanding of the objectives or perspectives of policing within the Aborigines viewpoint altogether. Based on this regard, it remains a fact that Aborigines and Policing are as at present similar in their meaning. In this case most indigenous people see the discretion from police as the main factor and the cause of higher levels of oppression among the Aborigines themselves (Jeffries, & Bond, 2014). For instance, the manner in which the Aboriginal people as manifested by the population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait person who are in custody is indeed the prime manifestation with regard to the unfairness in the Criminal Justice System in Australia. The instance here has facts that support it from the case where the police have such powers to determine the fate of the Indigenous people while still under police custody. According to one research over the same, it noted that the Aboriginal people who are in police custody are always under public order criminal activities where in this case the discretion from the police is the key to the determination of who will get detained or even arrested and at the same time the charges they will face altogether. On top of this, the police officers also use excessive powers and control in the management of culture that most of the non-indigenous people do not understand (Goldsmith, & Halsey, 2013). The instance in this case best shows how the society continues to operate in circumstances of oppression to the Indigenous people living in Australia. At the same time, there are variations in the class with regards to the impacts it brings upon the policing instances applied to the Aborigines in particular. For instance, the instance of class promotes the alienation of the political powers from majority of the citizens and at the same utilizes criminal justice system to instill order that organically champions (McHugh, 2011). However, it remains much easier to ignore the whole issue as part of the political oppression and lack of power as much as it looks complicated to fulfill. One interesting aspect to note is that most of the literatures in sociology focusing on Aborigines and policing have lot on the social, economic and the political oppressions that the Aborigines still have up to the moment (Gau, & Brunson, 2015). Indeed they contend that introduction of the criminal justice system still perpetuates the instance of oppression among the Aboriginal Community as at present. Additionally, the researchers further adds that the manner in which the administration of the criminal justice system takes place is a key to the manifestation of non-Aborigines’ pride against that of the Aboriginal people in particular. With the consideration of the various aspects of the identification of the theory of crime, it notes that criminals are simply those who either goes against the laid down political stands or police wishes. Based on this perspective, the instance of criminal justice system in Australia only targets the Aboriginal society who is again the minority in the country. Finally, the impacts of Indigenous Criminology have the potentiality among the Indigenous people plus the communities. In this regard, the concepts of race as the determinate for criminal justice resolution are not worth to ignore (Fitzmaurice, 2012). For instance, the corrective institutions in the country provides a proof for instance of racial discrimination in the country. A good example in relation to this instance is the case where the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have higher representations in the corrective institutions. With regards to the same, cases of discrimination and racism remain key factors in the consideration of that reason that support the instance where the Indigenous people are in incidences of criminal justice processes (Porter, 2013). Consequently, the impacts together with the comparative variations in the way racism impacts on Aboriginal people may not be proportional to the suffering that non Aboriginal people face. Conclusion There is need to have a continuous recognition of the Aboriginal culture, past and at the same time the instances of dispossessions should also find their way in the criminal justice system of the country which in this case would match with the relevance of Indigenous Criminology. Similarly to this, the fact remains that only at such instances where the non-Aboriginal people will not accept to know the issues concerned with unfairness among the Indigenous Australians, then there will be a drastic change in the relationship between the groups which also will lead to the different way of understanding the version of Indigenous Criminology. Otherwise, the Indigenous people will continue to face oppressions from the whites who are in power and at the same time the custody levels will also remain to escalate them. For this reason, there is need to exert changes to avoid looming crisis in future over the same. References Babidge, S. (2010). Aboriginal Family And The State. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Pub. Co. Burke, R. (2013). Theorizing the Criminal Justice System: Four Models of Criminal Justice Development. Criminal Justice Review, 38(3), 277-290. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0734016812473822 Canali, C., Vecchiato, T., & Whittaker, J. (2008). 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