Indigenous Policing in Australia - Research Paper Example

INDIGENOUS POLICING IN AUSTRALIA Student’s name Code & Course Professor’s name University City Date Contents 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 Theoretical concepts 4 2.1 Institutional racism 4 2.2 Institutional socialization 6 2.3 Social control 8 3.0 discriminative policing in australia; a Chris Cunneen perspective 10 4.0 Conclusion 14 5.0 reference list 15 1.0 Introduction Since the colonization of Australia by the British, the land was classified as terra nullius. According to Cunneen, this mean that the land, by then, was unsovereign as far as the European authorities were concerned; its inhabitants were not the owners of the land, hence no tenure system (Conor, 2005). Moreover, the indigenous inhabitants of the land, as opposed to citizenship, were taken to be British subjects. In this respect, the indigenous were expected to bow to disruption of their socialization practices and ways of life as well as dispossession of resources and lands. As such, any resistance to such unjust activities was regarded as criminal activity. The British classified themselves as civilized and hence claimed it was just enough, by virtue of their enlightenment, to uptake the land for modernity projects as well as development (Makki, 2014). Given that there was no military action in Australia during the colonization era, it was the duty of the police to dispossess the indigenous inhabitants of their lands and forcefully relocating them. From a colonial perspective, the police were classified as the agents of the state. According to Finnane (1994), the dynamic role of the Australian police in governing aborigines highly alienates them from the original police models from Ireland and England. During the initial dispossession of eastern Australia, the police were yet to be institutionalized. However, from the 1830s onwards, after the establishment of police forces, the colonial state acquired a powerful and flexible tool, handy for the colonization process. Following the consolidation of the colonialism process, a protective legislation was established for two main reasons. First, the colonial state was responding to humanitarian lobbyists who presented their dissatisfaction as to how the indigenous inhabitants were being governed. Secondly, there was need to protect the inhabitants and their livestock from wild animals in the places where they were relocated (Beckett, 1988). The police were therefore given the role of protecting the aborigines in the missions and reserves. As well as supervising their daily livelihoods. The depiction of such supervision includes separating children from their families and chaining runaways around the necks and chains as they were being returned to the reserves. This paper presents the argument that the definition of crime, offenders and the subsequent punishment to offenders in Australia is highly political, with respect to the findings of Chris Cunneen (2001). To do so, the paper first considers three theoretical perspectives relative to over policing of the indigenous people in Australia; and the ways in which such over policing exists, drawing insight from the work of Cunneen. 2.0 Theoretical concepts The relationship between Australian aborigines and non-aborigines can only be termed as highly appalling. This is especially emphasized through contemporary and historical divides existent between the police and the aboriginal people. To them, the police symbolize the white authority which has been prevalent for 200 years indignant history (Cunneen, 2005). This section presents four theoretical concepts relevant to policing and the aborigines of Australia. 2.1 Institutional racism Racism is the perception that proclaims the superiority of a given racial group over another (Grosfoguel, 2016). According to current literature concerning racism, it has been found that there still exist aspects in governmental systems and working procedures carrying forward; through inertia as opposed to malevolence, various norms of racism. For instance, it is assumed, in Australia, that the indigenous people cannot take care of themselves and therefore need governmental protection, notably the police, until they attain the desired level of civilization as the non-indigenous. Government policy is hence formed by such beliefs; claiming to be protecting the aboriginal people; yet discriminating and torturing them (De Costa, 2012). More so, that ‘protection’ is not perceptible in the statistics related to housing, health, education, employment and more importantly, overrepresentation of the aboriginal people in prisons. Those in power disregard such statistics providing that they are engrossed in procedures and practices of making decisions, and more so, without the opinion of the victims. This is then referred to as institutional racism. Institutional racism therefore describes complex structures, processes and procedures of racial positions embedded within institutions. It is through such a description that the functions and insidious structures that promote racism can be highlighted (KLirmayer, 2012). For the rationale of this paper, racism will be taken as the model of distributing social goods, inclusive of power, featuring regular and systematic favoritism to given racial and ethnic groups at the expense of others. Such operations are carried out from major institutions; from which act as the channels of distribution for social goods and services. Institutional racism becomes an acceptable behavior in a society, given its subtle and furtive nature; due to engagement of respected forces like the police. The police are among the most powerful institutions of Australian society. This power is made as resilient as it is by thorough understanding of the law as contained in the Australian legal system as well as the underlying due processes. Moreover, the police in Australia have the mandate, by their opinion concerning breaking of the law, to arrest, question and detain such citizens perceived to have broken the law (Bradford, 2014). As such, it is possible that the police can abuse the powers given to them, resulting to disempowerment of some sections of the society in Australia, notably the indigenous people. Given the historical perspective of the relationship between police and indigenous people described herein, there are concerns regarding racist positions prevalent in senior level police of Australia, as well as the subsequent effect through the police service hierarchy. As a theoretical concept, institutionalized racism is significant in examining the fundamental issues with respect to overrepresentation of the Australian aboriginal people in custody. Taking into consideration that the people in custody are initially arrested by the police, it is arguable that the police have a major role in such racism (Hollinsworth, 2013). If the police possess racist attitudes towards aboriginal people, then such overrepresentation is warranted. To further unearth institutional racism, this paper goes ahead to examine socialization as a concept relevant to policing and the indigenous people. 2.2 Institutional socialization Socialization can be defined precisely as the process that teaches human beings on how to be members of a society; paying attention to how vales and norms are internalized in that society (Berns, 2012). It can also describe how people learn their social roles like citizenship, friendship and working among others. It is by socialization that the environment and significant others are able to impact on the dynamic attributes of a subject. This model of socialization is therefore labeled as normative. The normative perspective to socialization, notably for the Australian non-indigenous society is evident through how parents influence their children to internalize the assumption of the Australian society (Patrick, 2012). The family being the primary tool of socialization, parents play a significant part in the way their children are socialized in terms of habits, beliefs, morals, knowledge, customs, culture and language of the specific society. Parents are therefore able to reproduce the beliefs of a society by passing on such beliefs; the children are then made active participants of the prevalent social orders. The socialization process involves rewards, reinforcements and punishments so as to ensure the reproduction of social orders and values. Farther from the family, the child is influenced by significant others in the society. In the western cultures, the institutions involved in the socialization process hence significant others include government agencies, media, school and the church among others (Lee et.al, 2013). The institutions have strict rules and regulations that must be adhered to. The punishment or sanctions consequential to non-compliance are usually tougher in comparison to informal sanctions at the family level; for instance, police arrest or suspension from school. On the other hand, agents of socialization in an aboriginal society are more complex. In such societies, the extended family and the kinship system are central players of the socialization process (Becket, 1965). This process, in contrast with the non-aboriginal society, is highly interactive in that the members of the society, regardless of demographic factors like age, are involved in a continuous interaction process of learning from each other. The socialization process is hence labelled as interactionist (Peterson, 2013). As opposed to the interactionist approach of the aboriginal society, the Australian police undergo through the closed system comparable to the normative approach of the non-aboriginal society. The police are therefore obliged to comply with the norms of the socialization process so as to be fully functioning participants of such a society (Stanislas, 2013). This paper finds it appropriate to define institutional socialization as the process through which the norms and values of a profession are adopted into an individual’s concept of self and behavior leading to the acquisition of the desired characteristics, attitudes, skills and knowledge with respect to that profession. This definition is relevant to the Australian police, since it allows the cadet police to acquire all the attributes of policing acceptable as normal by the institution. In Australia, the police undergo through continuous institutional socialization beginning from entry into the institution as a cadet. The new cadet is trained extensively in the Australian cadet academies; being instructed by trainers from within the police institution itself (Ismail, 2012). Upon graduation from the academy, the new officers are accorded experienced partners who train them further concerning the roles, acceptable behavior, culture and customs of an Australian police officer.as the new recruit interacts with other officers in activities like sports and camaraderie, the police culture is internalized, regardless of its impact on the subjects. 2.3 Social control Social control entails the process of regulating individual or group behavior within a society. The society, even the aboriginal, therefore operates under a given sort of law, founded on cultural, dictatorial or democratic processes (Janowitz, 1975). In essence, social control is related to sanctioning, responding and reacting to deviant behavior in order to eradicate it. I order to achieve conformity and subsequent social control, it is imperative to implement punishments and sanctions for non-conformity or violating norms. Similarly, those who conform to social expectations are bound to be rewarded so as to positively reinforce such behavior for future conformity. The Australian society has developed laws that are significant in representing community values hence formal conformity and social control. The process of developing legislation includes consultancy between the elected members of parliament and other stakeholders like lobbyist groups, pressure groups and more importantly, the community (House, 2015). Development and implementation of the laws in Australia, apparently revolves around the recognition of the rights of a citizen. However, the parliament is in a position to define… a given faction’s rights as superior to another faction… Also, the parliament can also appoint other bodies, namely commissions, to create laws in response to demand for such laws; for instance the Royal Commission was mandated to look into the death of aboriginals in custody (Eades, 1996). In the aboriginal societies, the elders head the clans and possess unquestionable authority. These elders make all the decisions and highlight appropriate and inappropriate behaviors in accordance with the law within their areas of jurisdictions. The laws of the aboriginal people originate from their ancestors, and are still taught, in different levels in the process of socialization in the aboriginal societies. The location, history and culture of the respective clans within the societies determine the ways in which such laws are administered. In Australia, social agents responsible for social control are mandated the duty of implementing the law. These agents consist of the legal system, particularly courts and tribunals, regulatory agencies and the police (Roeger, 1994). Theoretically, in Australia, formal social control can only be enforced by the justice system that is empowered by the legislated laws hence social order. It is therefore perceived that the Australian law is discriminative in that it exclude the aboriginal law in the system of law enforcement; the system only runs under the dominant Australian culture and renders the aboriginal law invalid in social control. Allegedly, the Australian government advocates for the self-determination of the indigenous people. Even so, the government does not legislate the aboriginal law such that the aboriginal society is able to handle the legal issues confronting the aboriginal society. Unfortunately for the aboriginal people, the territory and state governments as well as the federal government operate under the dominant Australian culture, with less regard for aboriginal cultural difference (Roeger, 1994). The aboriginal people are therefore subjected to disempowerment and control by the dominant Australian culture. 3.0 discriminative policing in australia; a Chris Cunneen perspective From a historical perspective, Australian policing highlights an approach of policing that both illustrates and reinforces hierarchical social divides along gender, class and racial lines. Peter Carrey revives the 19th century struggle between the wealthy squatters and the poor selector families in Australia. The police, commonly known as traps by the sectors, were the key participants in the struggle. They were oppressive and corrupt while they applied imprisonment, brutality, harassment and surveillance to control the ‘criminal class’ of people. It has then been argued that the policing of the indigenous people is correspondent to that of the marginalized and poor groups. The aboriginal people associate the police with destruction of life and theft of land; as Cunneen demonstrates that there is a qualitative difference in how the aboriginal people depict the police in comparison to the non-aboriginal people. According to Cunneen (P. 128), the difference largely draws from the colonial process whereby the police were highly involved in genocide and racism such that the indigenous people were labelled inferior. The Australian criminal justice system faces criticism by many due to over representing the indigenous people in custody (arrests and imprisonment). Current statistics indicate that it is 16 times more likely for an indigenous person to imprisoned; and 27 times more prone to police arrest in comparison to a non-indigenous person in Australia. Similarly, while in many Australian prisons aboriginal women account for a 70% population; there is a 25 times more likelihood of indigenous juveniles being incarcerated compared to non-indigenous juveniles (P.25). Cunneen adequately explains these statistics by a critical analyzing of interconnected issues including structural and historical colonization conditions, systematic racism as well as economic and social marginalization. Similarly, the analysis considers the implication of given practices in criminal justice and the underlying agencies. A non-indigenous person in Australia cannot comprehend the plight of indigenous people in the hands of the police in a straightforward manner. Cunneen introduces the reader into a perspective where the blue uniform is an embodiment of torture, terror, imprisonment, violence, abuse, racism, surveillance, harassment and even death. It is from such police actions that it is concluded that the indigenous people are policed differently and even more extensively compared to the non-aboriginal. In the aboriginal world, even inoffensive community events like sports carnivals, birthday parties and football presentations attract violent and unwarranted police interventions. Also, police are known for arresting aboriginal people for small street offences and eventually, they are imprisoned for such petty reasons. Cunneen presents that incarcerating the aboriginal people in Australia has become normalized such that the cell is viewed as an ideal place for the aboriginal; an inevitable and natural place for them. At one instance, Mark Quayle, an aboriginal was taken to hospital, having taken no alcohol; the doctors declined attending to him but called the police on him. Mark was unlawfully put into police a police cell while still critically sick. He died in the cell. This case is just one among many, where aboriginal people are unlawfully arrested and killed in custody. In yet another instance that depicts gender and racial discrimination, a woman named D, upon complaining of sexual assault to the police was immediately thrown into the cell. The base of the custody was that she was required by the authorities for failing to appear to answer charges of public consumption of alcohol. She was detained for fifteen hours, despite the stress and trauma she would be subjected to, especially after a sexual assault. The police argued that her detainment provided her with a clean and safe place with another female partner so that she could not be suicidal (p.175). This is to say, according to the police, an aboriginal who has been assaulted, even sexually, should expect neither compassion nor dignity, but should instead be provided with a cell. The book acts as a tool that gives a voice to the marginalized and voiceless in the society. It is presented therein that the government has publicly denied the involvement of police in mistreatment and violation of the Australian indigenous people (P.127). According to Cunneen, truth and reconciliation cannot be separated if justice is to be restored in a culture torn apart by systematic and regular racism. It is the work of the government and the police to acknowledge the presence of injustice in Australia, so as to allow the process of healing to take course. Policing in Australia is a tool used by the criminal justice system to deny the aboriginal people the chance to participate in economic, social and political processes. As mentioned earlier herein, the police were meaningful tools in the colonial period where they were used in enforcing government policy and to overcome aboriginal resistance to dispossession. This was done by social control, strict spatial apartheid and theft of children. It is only in 1967 after the referendum when the indigenous inhabitants were accorded citizenship of Australia. Even now, the aboriginal are still regarded as inferior and hence are denied the rights of the citizenship they now possess. Cunneen labels the contemporary era as neo-liberal colonialism; while formal equality is applauded, aboriginal people are continuously reproduced and constructed as criminals hence non-citizens. At this point, police harassment and brutality, even in the most unwarranted situations, is reinforced. Furthermore, the police racist culture and individual pathology continues to be reflected in beatings, violent home invasions and use of paramilitary police. Cunneen goes ahead to say that the existing systematic violence is made to seem natural, justified and eventually blamed on the victims, notably the aboriginal people. The aboriginal are seen as an evil social element hence separation from the mainstream nation and constant linking with disorder and criminality. Based on this, it is considered acceptable and legitimate to use extreme measures and power on these people (p.118). Such criminalization is an evident projection of the colonial era into the contemporary world while masking the dispossession crime. Instead of being viewed as people with legitimate political claims, the dominant Australian culture uses incarceration, marginalization and denial of human rights to maintain the status quo such that the aboriginal remain the dispossessed minority (P.250). Cunneen further dismisses the current efforts of reformation. More specifically, he argues that millions of dollars have been used in the Royal Commission concerning Aboriginal Deaths in Custody for futile attempts. He claims that even with such efforts, the aboriginal people are still dying in custody. This largely draws form the fact that the recommendations by the commission have only been implemented partially or ignored altogether. Furthermore, the recruiting of indigenous people into the institution of policing, though meaningful, has been done in a hypocritical manner. The indigenous people are not assigned major tasks nor allowed to have input of major issues, criminal justice system’s priorities or objectives. It should not to be forgotten that, as a result of trauma and pain from the police force, the aboriginal group of people are subjected to 20 years less in their lifespan in comparison to the non-aboriginal people (Brady, 1995). The book gives the readers a picture of a post-colonial future. Cunneen deduces that so far, indigenous resistance has been significant to some extent. It has provided spaces for the aboriginal people to employ their authority in maintaining social order and in policing. Furthermore, the aboriginal are being increasingly consulted in identifying issues as well as coming up with viable solutions; success has been recorded during such consultancies. It is only through self-determination that the current relationships between the non-indigenous and indigenous people in Australia can shift from being neocolonial to post-colonial. 4.0 Conclusion Drawing from the theoretical perspective presented herein, it can be concluded that the police in Australia use excessive power and extreme measures in policing aborigines compared to non-aborigines hence over policing. It is also deducible that institutional racism has been internalized by the police through the socialization process in Australia. The police then use brutal means and abuse of power for social control among the aboriginal society. This further to a racist police culture which is reflected by high incarceration and arrest rates among the aboriginal people. If unchecked, the aboriginal society will enter the realm of being the most incarcerated group of people around the globe. The Australian standards should be reviewed so that the police culture that allows non-conformity, abuse of power, brutality and racism can be abolished. Moreover, as much as the police can’t erase the colonialism history of Australia, they should comprehend that they work in the framework of such colonialism. The police should realize that their brutality has been a major player in the theft of generations for the aboriginal people. Cunneen’s book goes beyond history, criminology and indigenous issues; it describes the meaning of being Australian as well as the struggle towards a society build on truth, justice and reconciliation. 5.0 reference list Beckett, J. 1965 ‘Kinship, mobility and community among part-Aborigines in rural Australia’, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol 6, No. 1, pp 7 – 23 Beckett, J., 1988. Aboriginality, citizenship and nation state. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, (24), pp.3-18. Berns, R., 2012. Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support. Nelson Education. Bradford, B., 2014. Policing and social identity: Procedural justice, inclusion and cooperation between police and public. Policing and society, 24(1), pp.22-43. Brady, M., 1995. Culture in treatment, culture as treatment. A critical appraisal of developments in addictions programs for indigenous North Americans and Australians. Social Science & Medicine, 41(11), pp.1487-1498. Connor, M.C., 2005. The invention of Terra Nullius: Historical and legal fictions on the foundation of Australia. Cunneen, C., 2001. Conflict, politics and crime: Aboriginal communities and the police. Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police. Cunneen, C., 2005. Racism, discrimination and the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system: Some conceptual and explanatory issues. Current Issues Crim. Just., 17, p.329. De Costa, R., 2012. A higher authority: Indigenous transnationalism and Australia. UNSW Press. Eades, D., 1996. Legal recognition of cultural differences in communication: The case of Robyn Kina. Language & Communication, 16(3), pp.215-227. Finnane, M., 1994. Police and government: Histories of policing in Australia. Oxford University Press. Grosfoguel, R., 2016. What is Racism?. Journal of World-Systems Research, 22(1), pp.9-15. Hollinsworth, D., 2013. Decolonizing indigenous disability in Australia. Disability & Society, 28(5), pp.601-615. House, F., 2015. Freedom in the World 2015: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Rowman & Littlefield. Ismail, A.Z.M.A.N., Ghazali, M.Z., Ismail, Y.U.S.O.F., Faudzi, M.H.M. and Arshad, M.M., 2012. FAN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ASSIGNMENT PRACTICES IN TRAINING PROGRAMS AND TRAINING MOTIVATION. Studies in Business and Economics, 7(1), pp.5-16. Janowitz, M., 1975. Sociological theory and social control. American Journal of sociology, pp.82-108. Kirmayer, L., 2012. Rethinking cultural competence. Transcultural Psychiatry, 49(2), p.149. Lee, N.J., Shah, D.V. and McLeod, J.M., 2013. Processes of Political Socialization A Communication Mediation Approach to Youth Civic Engagement. Communication Research, 40(5), pp.669-697. Makki, F., 2014. Development by Dispossession: Terra Nullius and the Social‐Ecology of New Enclosures in Ethiopia. Rural Sociology, 79(1), pp.79-103. Patrick, D., 2012. Indigenous contexts. The Routledge handbook on multilingualism, pp.29-48. Carey, P True History of the Kelly Gang, University Of Queensland Press, St Lucia Peterson, N., 2013. On the persistence of sharing: Personhood, asymmetrical reciprocity, and demand sharing in the Indigenous Australian domestic moral economy. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 24(2), pp.166-176. Stanislas, P., 2013. International perspectives on police education and training. Routledge. Read More