NCJ Number
171505
Journal
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology Volume: 30 Issue: 3 Dated: (December 1997) Pages: 275-291
Date Published
1997
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examines the interaction between Aboriginal people and police in the rural communities of North-West New South Wales.
Abstract
The overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system is very well established. Further, the key role of the police in this overrepresentation -- as distinct from essentially passive respondents to a presumably criminal Aboriginal population -- has also been widely accepted within the field of criminology. The article attempts to form an understanding of the interaction between Aboriginal people and police by analyzing the manner in which knowledge of the Aboriginal subject is constructed through material police practices in a particular context, the rural communities of North-West New South Wales. The paper emphasizes the relationship between the structural imperatives of policing and the specific conditions of particular policed spaces, and the active role played by Aboriginal people in the creation of policing outcomes. An important theoretical point that emerges from this analysis is that explanations of the over-policing of Aboriginal communities in late 20th century Australia must commence with relatively homogenous police practices and an awareness of the centrality of public space to policing functions. Notes, table, references