NCJ Number
70356
Date Published
1978
Length
92 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses the strong correlation between crime and unemployment that has been observed by Western Australia's legal aid services for both Aboriginals and the general population.
Abstract
Approximately 90 percent of Aboriginal offenders are unemployed at the time of arrest. In adult institutions aboriginals are 33 percent of all male inmates and 64 percent of all female inmates. In juvenile correctional facilities 70 percent of the inmates are Aboriginal. Since only 1.5 percent of the total population of Australia is Aboriginal, the percentage of criminal behavior among Aboriginals is disproportionate. Reasons that are advanced for this high rate of crime among Aboriginals are that they have a subculture of their own which incurs the hatred of police and the despair of their social and legal advisors. Also, they used to work in rural areas; such work, however, is no longer available to them, partly because of the mechanization of agriculture and increasing rural depression which eliminates jobs in which they were once employed (root picking, assisting with ploughing, etc.). The Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) and State Legal Aid Commission provide legal aid services. One courts's data on 168 persons arrested between January 1, 1978, and June 1, 1978, showed that 40 were employed full time, 57 were unemployed, and 71 described themselves either as 'married woman' or 'home duties'. Of the offenses committed, approximately 60 percent were stealing and related offenses; 3 percent were assaults and minor offenses, such as willful damage; the remainder were traffic offenses which include driving while intoxicated. No appreciable differences in types of crime were found between unemployed and employed persons. A table provides results of a survey of education and employment among prisoners at the Fremantle House of Corrections in 1976-77. For a related document, see NCJ 53933.