Comparision of Appearances by Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Children's Aid Panels in South Australia (From Aborigines and Criminal Justice, P 43-78, 1984, Bruce Swanton, ed. - See NCJ-95993)

• NCJ Number: 95996
• Author(s): R J Bailey
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 36 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

An analysis of appearances before South Australia's Children's Court and children's aid panels from July 1, 1979, to December 31, 1979, compared the appearance rates of Aboriginal children with those of non-Aboriginal children.

Abstract

There were 1,692 appearances before the Children's Court and 2,063 appearances before children's aid panels. In appearances before the Children's Court and the children's aid panels, Aborigines made up 10.7 percent and 4.1 percent respectively, a disproportionate representation compared with their numbers in the general population. Aboriginal children appearing before the court were more likely than their non-Aboriginal counterparts to have had previous contact with either the criminal or the welfare jurisdiction. Regarding the types of offenses with which children were charged and the dispositions imposed by courts and panels, the statistics reveal as many similarities as differences between the two groups. Dispositions were not significanntly different between the two groups. Explanations are offered for the statistical findings. Tabular data are provided. For other conference papers, see NCJ 95994-95 and 95998-99.