Stubbs, Julie --- "Book Review - National Conference on Juvenile Justice: Conference Proceedings" [1994] AboriginalLawB 42; (1994) 3(69) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 11

• Book Review-National Conference On Juvenile Justice: Conference Proceedings

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Book Review -

National Conference on Juvenile Justice: Conference Proceedings

Lynne Atkinson & Sally-Anne Gerull (eds)

Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, 1993

Reviewed by Julie Stubbs

There are 41 chapters in this collection of papers presented at the National Conference on juvenile justice which was held in Adelaide in 1992. The proceedings include contributions from Australia and New Zealand. The papers included in the proceedings are diverse in both content and quality. Topics included range from broad considerations of the models underpinning juvenile justice to legislation, crime prevention policy and specific localised juvenile programmes.

Several chapters deal with issues related to the level of juvenile justice intervention in the lives of Aboriginal youth. The chapter by Garth Luke and Chris Cunneen provides the first New South Wales data which compare the level of criminal justice intervention for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth. The level of over-representation of Aboriginal youth increases the further you move into the system with Aboriginal youth receiving 6.9% of police cautions, accounting for 16.5% of court appearances, and 27.2% of detention orders (p25s), a finding consistent with the data from Queensland reported by Ian O'Connor’s chapter in the proceedings (p136). Luke and Cunneen also found that the level of over-representation of Aboriginal youth at all stages of the juvenile justice system was much higher in country areas. Aboriginal youth who came into contact with the juvenile justice system tended to be younger, were more likely to be female, had longer criminal records and a greater history of previous institutionalisation than non-Aboriginal youth. Comparing first offenders, the research indicates that Aboriginal young offenders are significantly less likely to receive a caution than are non-Aboriginal first offenders, that this differential was even greater in rural areas (p263), and was maintained when offence type was taken into account (p264). Data concerning the courts' treatment of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal juveniles shows an apparent equality of treatment, however, this apparent equality reinforces the discriminatory police practices which place a higher proportion of Aboriginal young offenders before the courts in the first instance.

Police treatment of youth and particularly of Aboriginal youth is also examined by Rob White's chapter which outlines the findings of the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme study concerning the treatment of young people in the legal system. The level of contact between the young people and the police was high, at around 80%, but for Aboriginal youth was even higher at around 95% (p241).

Frank Morgan's paper provides details of South Australian research concerning cohorts of young people and their level of contact with the juvenile justice system. The comparisons between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth are stark: whilst 29% of males born in 1972 had contact with the juvenile justice system, the percentage for Aboriginal males was almost 70% (more exact figures are not provided). For girls, 12.6% of the 1972 cohort had contact with the juvenile justice system but for Aboriginal girls the figure was approximately 40% (ppi73-174). Aboriginal youth were much less likely to appear before an Aid Panel, and were more likely to appear before a court, than were non-Aboriginal youth (p175).

Lynn Atkinson's chapter describes aspects of the juvenile justice system in Western Australia and in particular the introduction of pre-trial conferencing, designed to encourage negotiations between prosecution and defence. However, the Aboriginal Legal Service reportedly finds that the conferences are not beneficial, and few Aboriginal youth attend, whether because of political, practical, cultural or lifestyle considerations. Unfortunately their failure to attend simply reinforces police and prosecutorial attitudes about Aboriginal youth. Atkinson concludes by arguing that it is difficult to graft an equitable reform onto an inequitable system (p276).

Other papers of particular interest include that by Judge Hal Jackson which reflects on the development of punitive juvenile justice policies in Western Australia, policies that are at odds with both the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and with international standards. Charlotte Stockwell also addresses the Western Australian policies and analyses the role of the media in that debate. She examines the overt racism of much of the reporting by the media which resulted in a construction of criminality as synonymous with Aboriginality. As Stockwell cautions, this debate is not yet over, and those with influence in the Western Australian media remain ready to engage in similar racist attacks in the future with apparent impunity.

A significant number of the papers in this collection deal either directly or indirectly with the New Zealand Family Group Conference (FGC) and with Australian experiments with a modified form of conferencing as alternatives to more traditional juvenile justice interventions. Given that one of the stated objectives of the New Zealand scheme is to be culturally appropriate, it is worth considering these papers in some detail.

The basis of the New Zealand FGC is set out in chapters by Judge Michael Brown, by John Braithwaite who links it with his own theoretical work on reintegrative shaming and by Gabrielle Maxwell. Terry O'Connell provides details concerning the operation of the modified form of conferencing undertaken by police in Wagga Wagga. Each of these chapters provides very usefuls detail which contribute towards an assessment of conferencing as an alternative juvenile justice intervention.

Maxwell's paper is especially useful since she gives a good overview of what have been considered both the achievements and the failings of the New Zealand scheme to date. Measured against a range of key objectives the findings are mixed. The findings concerning diversion from the criminal justice system are perhaps the most impressive. Maxwell cites a massive reduction in both the number of young offenders appearing before the courts, and in the numbers who are institutionalised. However, Maxwell also cites concerns about the absence of due process (ptm; the poor provision of adequate and accessible services to young people and their families (pl20); a failure to engage young people in the decision-making process (pp)120-121; a surprising number of victims reporting that they felt worse as a consequence of having participated in a family group conference, and a higher than expected dissatisfaction by victims with conference outcomes (pp121-122); the concern that family group conferences remained European in their orientation and were unresponsive to cultural differences (although there was the belief that there was the potential for family group conferences to deal more effectively with cultural diversity) (pt22); concerns about reconciling offender's needs and victim's interests in the one forum (p123); concerns about reconciling offender's needs with the objective of holding them accountable (pp123-124); the tension between family and victim participation in decision-making and maintaining tariff equity (p124); and the tension between empowering offenders and their families in a system which is ultimately aimed at control. Maxwell's overall assessment of the scheme however, is a positive one (plea) which she argues has wide application because the fundamental bases are universal and not tied to a particular culture.

Unfortunately the Australian approaches to conferencing have not yet been systematically evaluated, although strong claims are made by Braithwaite, by Moore and by O'Connell about their success. The scant detail of how this success has been measured stands in contrast to Maxwell's article, and frustrates any attempt to compare the two approaches on any of the range of measures which, might be appropriate. It is clear from the proceedings that conferencing has presented a controversial issue amongst the delegates. Editor Lynn Atkinson in her preface to the collection stresses the need for caution against assuming the applicability of family group conferencing for Aboriginal juveniles in Australia, simply because the approach is modelled on a scheme arising out of the culture and values of an indigenous people, the Maori. As she notes, the voices of Aboriginal Australians have yet to be heard on this matter (p3).

Taken as a whole the conference proceedings represent a good cross-section of recent Australian and New Zealand research concerning juvenile justice, although some of the research reported has now been overtaken by legislative or policy reforms. Several of the papers are particularly useful in quantifying the actual over-representation of Aboriginal young people in the juvenile justice system, and in identifying discriminatory policing, and early decisions taken about how to process Aboriginal youth as contributing to this over-representation. Where programmes developed specifically for Aboriginal youth are described, too little detail is offered to make any assessment of how effective they may be, and the specific needs of Aboriginal girls within the juvenile justice system are not addressed at all. Too few of the contributions recognise what Ken Polk argues as being crucial to effective juvenile justice policies - that is that juvenile justice must be placed within the context of broad public policies (pp67-82). He stresses the need to address youth unemployment and for the provision of appropriate educational and training initiatives. These issues are particularly vital for Aboriginal youth.