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The Northern Territory Intervention & the Drive to Convict

The Northern Territory Intervention & the Drive to Convict. Thalia Anthony, UTS Faculty of Law Presentation to UWS, 4 April 2012. Schism between Moral Panic and Crime.

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The Northern Territory Intervention & the Drive to Convict

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  1. The Northern Territory Intervention & the Drive to Convict Thalia Anthony, UTS Faculty of Law Presentation to UWS, 4 April 2012

  2. Schism between Moral Panic and Crime “Whilst sexual assault and child abuse within [Northern Territory] Aboriginal communities receives the most attention from the media and from government programs, it is the lower level-type offending that is both the most pervasive and the most responsible for criminalization of Aboriginal people … Anecdotally, traffic offences make up the majority of matters before most bush courts” (Report on Taskforce Themis, NAAJA & CAALAS 2009:186, 13).

  3. Moral Panics • [Emerge when] ‘a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people’. - Stanley Cohen (2002) Folk Devils and Moral Panics, 3rd ed, Routledge, p1.

  4. Comparison of NT imprisonment Rate with Australian average, 2003-09

  5. Sexual offences investigated in the Northern Territory 2003-2009

  6. TYPES OF NET-WIDENING • An increase in the total number of deviants getting into the system in the first place and many of these are new deviants who would not have been processed previously (wider nets) • An increase in the overall intensity of intervention, with old and new deviants being subject to levels of intervention (including traditional institutionalization) which they might not have previously received (denser nets) • New agencies and services are supplementing rather than replacing the original set of control mechanisms (different nets).

  7. Types of driving offences commonly policed in Indigenous communities • Driver Licence Offences • Vehicle Registration and Roadworthiness Offences: driving unregistered vehicle; driving an uninsured vehicle; etc • Regulatory Driving Offences: low/mid range drink driving; not wearing seatbelt; failing to stop etc

  8. Incidence of yearly driving offences across the Northern Territory 2003-09

  9. Comparison of Rate of driving offences with sexual offences 2003-09

  10. Proportion of Driving Offences in NT Prescribed Communities, 23 Mar–1 June 2010

  11. Utility of law enforcement approach to driving offending • Increase in road fatalities injuries • Little effect on recidivism • Lack of facilities for licensing • Unregulated car market • Socio-economic, geographic and cultural factors preclude use of alternative transport • Indigenous resistance and breakdown of laws

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