Researchers: Alison Vivian, Larissa Behrendt and Amanda Porter

Project description: What are the factors contributing to low crime rates and to high crime rates in Aboriginal populations within towns in NSW? In order to better understand why there are such significant variations in rates of Indigenous offending in different areas of NSW, we conducted research in three pairs of towns with significant Indigenous populations that are demographically comparable but with contrasting crime rates: Wilcannia and Menindee, Bourke and Lightning Ridge, and Kempsey and Gunnedah. 

Despite the focus on risk factors relating to individual Indigenous people and findings that raise the importance of community context, there has been little qualitative research focus on the dynamics of Indigenous communities as a whole and their relationship to rates of crime. The research that does exist on factors affecting crime rates in particular geographic locations, particularly in rural or regional areas, has not had a focus specifically on Indigenous communities. However, it does support undertaking qualitative community-level research to illuminate statistical data and inform government policy. 

There is much to be learned from positive examples from communities as well as those that are experiencing difficulties.  In recent years there has been a host of writers joining in the chorus about the hopelessness of Indigenous communities and the supposedly failed status of the project of self-determination. The severity and seriousness of Indigenous disadvantage is in no way in dispute here but we question and challenge the singular focus on so-called ‘failed communities’ and believe that there are equally significant lessons to be learnt from strong, resilient communities. This approach provides an important counter-narrative for the dominant discourse presented in mainstream media and elsewhere of lawless and disorderly Indigenous communities.

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