CRIMINAL LAW. CRIMINAL LAW Name of Student Name of Univ

Running head: CRIMINAL LAW
CRIMINAL LAW
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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CRIMINAL LAW
Introduction
The Aboriginal & Torres Strait islanders in Australia are the indigenous people in Australia. In
the Australian criminal justice system the most urgent Human Rights issue that has been faced is
the overrepresentation of indigenous Australians in prisons. There has been significant rise in
number of indigenous people who have been imprisoned in Australia in last few years (Abs.gov,
2018). This rate of incarceration for the indigenous people is seen as noticeably higher among
the indigenous women (Bosworth, 2004). This essay would be seen as discussing about the
problem of the overrepresentation of indigenous Australians in the Australian prison system
specially focusing on the indigenous Australian women who are considered as the structurally
disadvantage group. The essay particularly focuses on the statistics released by the government
on the increasing rate of prison population in context with the indigenous communities. In the
essay further discussion has been done for the reasons of recidivism among the individuals in the
indigenous communities. The essay briefly focuses on the issue of victimization of the women in
these communities.
Aboriginal Australians and criminal justice system
The Aboriginal & Torres Strait islander people in Australia are the indigenous people in
Australia, who have existed in Australia and its surrounding islands long before the British
colonization happened. Although there have been many similarities between the indigenous
people & the aboriginals in Australia, yet there are many diversities between these communities
and society in Australia are found.

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CRIMINAL LAW
The ‘criminal justice’ can be discussed as delivery of Justice against the people committing
serious crimes and also including the rehabilitation of the offenders prevention of the crimes and
providing for the moral support for the victims in the crime. Having a criminal justice system
would be helping in the prevalence of order & control in the society and it would also help in
decoration and crime investigation and protect the basic human rights of the victims and the
accused at the same time. In the Australian criminal justice system most urgent human rights
issue that has been faced is the overrepresentation of the indigenous Australians in prisons
(Bosworth, 2004).
From being an object for sympathy to being an object of risk, there has been significant shift that
has been typified by the changing characterizations of the higher courts for indigenous offenders
over the past few decades. Over the years the indigenous community has been simultaneously
considered as dysfunctional; which has resulted in recognition of the offenders in the
communities as being helpless or are incapable of being defined as indigenous (Finnane
and Mcguire, 2001). In spite of the fact that there has been widespread International concern for
the development & coordination process for the slowing down of the rate of women’s
imprisonment in the indigenous community, there had been very low success in effectively
implementing those developments.
Any demographic presented in Australia the rate of incarceration is the highest among the
indigenous women in the current times. The rate of incarceration of indigenous women is seen as
increasing to be more rapidly than that of the aboriginal men (Carlen, 2013).