Abstract
Questions of race and crime in Australia largely revolve around indigenous peoples. Australian criminologists cannot escape racial terminology which divides the population into groupings and largely ignores the complex ways in which Indigenous justice is experienced and practiced in diverse contexts. While there has been much research into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) crime and justice, previous research draws exclusively on mainland peoples who are culturally distinct from Torres Strait Islander peoples. Further, as a distinct setting, the Torres Strait Islands offer a unique opportunity to observe how justice is practiced in remote contexts. Drawing on statistical data from the Torres Strait Region, we argue that relatively low crime rates in the region may be linked to numerous indicators of social capital in the region.
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Legislation
Australian Constitution s 51 (xxxvi).
Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984 (Qld).
Racial Discrimination Act (1975) (Cth).
Torres Strait Act 1971.
Torres Strait Islanders Act 1939.
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Scott, J., Morton, J. (2018). Understanding Crime and Justice in Torres Strait Islander Communities. In: Carrington, K., Hogg, R., Scott, J., Sozzo, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65021-0_29
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