Alcohol and Anomie - The Nature of Aboriginal Crime (From Aboriginies and Criminal Justice, P 17-42, 1984, Bruce Swanton, ed. - See NCJ-95993)

• NCJ Number: 95995
• Author(s): J McCorquodale
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 26 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

Case law material is used to examine some key issues bearing upon Aborigines' involvement in crime and the criminal justice system.

Abstract

Several themes emerge from the analysis. First, Aborigines typically commit violent crimes against persons. Of 235 criminal offenses examined, only 49 (21 percent) involved crimes against inanimate objects. Homicides greatly outnumbered every other category of serious crime. Alcohol abuse was involved in about 36 percent of the offenses; in offenses against the person, alcohol was involved in about 40 percent. An anthropologist should be employed to analyze Aboriginal crime in the Northern Territory, where removal of restrictions on drinking and increased Aboriginal income have apparently made alcohol more accessible to Aborigines than in the past. For related articles, see NCJ 95994 and 95996-99.