Sentencing in light of Indigenous Group Experiences (original) (raw)
Related papers
Lessons Lost in Sentencing: Welding Individualised Justice to Indigenous Justice
Indigenous offenders are heavily over-represented in the Australian and Canadian criminal justice systems. In the case of R v Gladue, the Supreme Court of Canada held that sentencing judges are to recognise the adverse systemic and background factors that many Aboriginal Canadians face and consider all reasonable alternatives to imprisonment in light of this. In R v Ipeelee, the Court reiterated the need to fully acknowledge the oppressive environment faced by Aboriginal Canadians throughout their lives and the importance of sentencing courts applying appropriate sentencing options. In 2013, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in Bugmy v The Queen. The Court affirmed that deprivation is a relevant consideration and worthy of mitigation in sentencing. However, the Court refused to accept that judicial notice should be taken of the systemic background of deprivation of many Indigenous offenders. The High Court also fell short of applying the Canadian principle that sentencing should promote restorative sentences for Indigenous offenders, given this oft-present deprivation and their over-representation in prison. In this article, we argue that Bugmy v The Queen represents a missed opportunity by the High Court to grapple with the complex interrelationship between individualised justice and Indigenous circumstances in the sentencing of Indigenous offenders.
In Australia, sentencing researchers have generally focused on whether there is statistical equality/inequality in outcomes by reference to Indigenous status. However, contextualizing the sentencing process requires us to move away from a reliance on statistical analyses alone, as this approach cannot tell us whether sentencing is an equitable process for Indigenous people. Consultation with those working at the sentencing “coal face” provides valuable insight into the nexus between Indigenous status and sentencing. This article reports the main themes from surveys of the judiciary and prosecutors, and focus groups with Indigenous community justice groups undertaken in Queensland. The aim is to understand better the sentencing process for Indigenous Queenslanders. Results suggest that while there have been some positive developments in sentencing (e.g. the Murri Court, community justice groups) Indigenous offenders still face a number of inequities.
In their statistical analyses of higher court sentencing in South Australia, Jeffries and Bond (2009) found evidence that Indigenous offenders were treated more leniently than non-Indigenous offenders, when they appeared before the court under similar numerical circumstances. Using a sample of narratives for criminal defendants convicted in South Australia's higher courts, the current article extends Jeffries and Bond's (2009) prior statistical work by drawing on the 'focal concerns' approach to establish whether, and in what ways, Indigeneity comes to exert a mitigating influence over sentencing. Results show that the sentencing stories of Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders differed in ways that may have reduced assessments of blameworthiness and risk for Indigenous defendants. In addition, judges highlighted a number of Indigenous-specific constraints that potentially could result in imprisonment being construed as an overly harsh and costly sentence for Indigenous offenders. Recent statistical research from three Australian jurisdictions (South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia) has suggested that Indigenous defendants are not more likely to be sentenced to prison than non-Indigenous defendants, when sentenced under similar circumstances (particularly, for comparable offences and prior criminal history). These studies show
Indigenous courts and justice practices in Australia
2004
Indigenous participation in sentencing procedures has been occurring informally in remote communities for some time. During the late 1990s, formalisation of this practice began in urban areas with the advent of Indigenous sentencing and Circle Courts. Formalisation has also occurred in remote areas. The aim has been to make court processes more culturally appropriate, to engender greater trust between Indigenous communities and judicial officers, and to permit a more informal and open exchange of information about defendants and their cases. Indigenous people, organisations, elders, family and kin group members are encouraged to participate in the sentencing process and to provide officials with insight into the offence, the character of victim-offender relations, and an offender's readiness to change. This paper describes the range of practices used. It is a snapshot of current practice at year-end 2003 in Australia. As courts and justice practices evolve and grow, new processes will emerge.
Indigenous sentencing courts : towards a theoretical and jurisprudential model
2007
Since 1999, a number of Indigenous sentencing courts have been established in Australia that use Indigenous community representatives to talk to a defendant about their offending and to assist a judicial officer in sentencing. The courts are often portrayed as having emerged to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system and to address key recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, in particular, those centred on reducing Indigenous incarceration, and on increasing the participation of Indigenous people in the justice system as court staff or advisors. They are also said to reflect partnership practices that were recommended in Justice Agreements made throughout Australia between state governments and Indigenous organisations. In this article, we argue that these courts have broader aims and objectives in that they seek to achieve a cultural and political transformation of the law, which is not as evident in other new justice practices such as restorative justice or therapeutic jurisprudence. There is a great deal of variation in the way the Indigenous sentencing courts have been established in each Australian State and Territory and in the practices they use. Despite the variations we show that the courts have common goals: to make court processes more culturally appropriate and to increase the involvement of Indigenous people (including the offender, support persons and the local community) in the court process. Although advocates of new justice practices associate Indigenous sentencing courts with restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence, we argue that while they have some elements in common, Indigenous courts have distinct aims and objectives. By analysing practices, protocols and other empirical materials, we show why Indigenous sentencing courts deserve a unique theoretical and jurisprudential model and why they are better viewed as being in a category of their own. Disciplines Disciplines Law Publication Details Publication Details E. Marchetti & K. Daly, 'Indigenous sentencing courts: towards a theoretical and jurisprudential model' (2007) 29 (3) Sydney Law Review 415-443.
Sentencing Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Women in Western Australia's Higher Courts
This article presents results from an exploratory study seeking to examine the role of sentencing in the continuing overrepresentation of Indigenous women in Western Australia’s prisons. Sentencing data from Western Australia’s higher courts indicate that Indigenous women were less likely than non-Indigenous women to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment when appearing before the court for comparable offending behaviour and histories.
A key aspect of the focal concerns perspective of sentencing is that time and information restrictions within the courtroom create the conditions under which perceptual shorthands may impact sentencing determinations. These shorthands are based stereotypes related to offender characteristics including minority group statuses (i.e. ethnicity, race, Indigenous status) (Steffensmeier et al., 1998). To date, sentencing scholars drawing on the focal concerns perspective have only considered the impact of minority group statuses on sentencing in the mainstream courts (Mitchell, 2005; Spohn, 2000). Utilizing multiple regression techniques the current paper explores the impact of Indigenous status on the decision to imprison in the problem solving courts of South Australia. Unlike the mainstream courts, sentencing determinations within the therapeutic problem-solving court environment involve a more extensive examination of offenders and their cases and by extension, perceptual shorthands should be less influential. Evidence supporting this argument is provided by the current research. Results show a direct relationship between Indigenous status and the likelihood of imprisonment, with leniency being extended to Indigenous offenders.
2009
Recent Australian research on Indigenous sentencing primarily explores whether disparities in sentencing outcomes exist. Little is known about how judges perceive or refer to Indigenous defendants and their histories, and how they interpret the circumstances of Indigenous defendants in justifying their sentencing decisions. Drawing on the 'focal concerns' approach, this study presents a narrative analysis of a sample of judges' sentencing remarks for Indigenous and non-Indigenous criminal defendants convicted in South Australia's Higher Courts. The analysis found that the sentencing stories of Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders differed in ways that possibly reduced assessments of blameworthiness and risk for Indigenous defendants.