Cunneen, Chris --- "Books Review -- Dealing with Young Offenders; The Children's Court and Community Welfare in NSW and Aboriginal Youth and the Criminal Justice System" [1990] AboriginalLawB 27; (1990) 1(44) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 19

• Books Review – Dealing With Young Offenders; The Children’s Court And Community Welfare In Nsw And Aboriginal Youth And The Criminal Justice System
• Dealing With Young Offenders
• The Children's Court And Community Welfare In Nsw
• Aboriginal Youth And The Criminal Justice System

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Books Review –

Dealing with Young Offenders;

The Children’s Court and Community Welfare in NSW

and

Aboriginal Youth and the Criminal Justice System

Dealing With Young Offenders

by John Seymour

Law Book Company, North Ryde, 1988.

pp.495, s.c. $51.

The Children's Court and Community Welfare in NSW

by Rod Blackmore

Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1989

pp.383, s.c, $45

Aboriginal Youth and the Criminal Justice System

by Gale, F., Bailey-Harris, R., Wundersitz, J.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990

h.c. $35

Reviewed by Chris Cunneen

In some respects Dealing With Young Offenders is a comprehensive book. The first part covers the historical development of juvenile justice since its inception in Australia. As Seymour acknowledges, a thorough understanding of existing practices can only be attained through an adequate historical perspective. The second part of the book analyses the current laws and practices across eight jurisdictions. One specific problem is that legislation in Western Australia has changed since the book's publication with the introduction of the Children's Court of WA. Act 1988 and amendments to the Child Welfare Act (W.A.) 1947.

A more general, and I would argue more serious, problem with the book is its failure to come to grips with the issue of Aboriginal juveniles and the juvenile justice system. Seymour's only acknowledgement of the problem is to state in the Preface that " a consideration of the system's impact on Aboriginal youth is beyond the scope of this book." Yet surely for a project that sets itself such a comprehensive task, as does this book, such an omission cannot be simply dismissed. As the articles presented in this issue of the Aboriginal Law Bulletin demonstrate, a fundamental part of the juvenile justice system has been, and continues to be, the control of Aboriginal youth.

Rod Blackmore, author of The Children's Court and Community Welfare in NSW, is the senior Children's Court Magistrate in NSW. His book is divided into two parts. The first part covers the history of children's legislation in NSW, the Children's Court in NSW, and chapters on young offenders, community welfare and children in need of care. The second part of the book comprises the annotated text of community welfare legislation which was proclaimed in 1988. Blackmore refers to Aboriginal children, particularly in relation to areas where they are specifically affected by the legislation (such as s87 of the Children (Care and Protection) Act 1987). He also acknowledges that earlier legislation such as the Aborigines Protection Act can be seen as "repressive" and a "negation of human rights". There is, however, no thorough-going analysis of the impact of current legislation on Aboriginal youth, despite their massive over-representation in the system. A criticism then, of both Blackmore and Seymour, is their failure to analyse how particular social relations such as race, or indeed class or gender, are integral aspects of the way the juvenile justice system operates.

The work by Gale, Bailey-Harris and Wundersitz is easily the most substantial contribution to our understanding of how Aboriginal youth are affected by the juvenile justice system. Their work is the culmination of many years research and writing in the area. The article by the authors on p12 of this Aboriginal Law Bulletin summarises some of the substantive findings of their research. ([1990] AboriginalLB 23; 2(44)pg12). Two of the main issues which emerge from the work are, firstly the long term effects which derive from initial police decisions to arrest Aboriginal youth and therefore the need for a greater focus on police practices, and secondly, the way discriminatory practices against Aboriginal youth to some extent merge with wider class-based biases within the justice system.