Media Release
January 30 2004
Culturally sensitive focus needed for Indigenous juvenile offenders
Indigenous youth workers and culturally appropriate programs are needed to reduce the high rate of Indigenous juvenile offenders in custody, a University of South Australia study shows.
The study on the needs of young Indigenous people in detention was undertaken by researcher Dr Andrew Day from UniSA’s Forensic Psychology Research Group, following concern about the extremely high rates of Indigenous overrepresentation in prisons, secure care and in juvenile justice.
"In South Australia, Indigenous young people aged between 10-17 years are 22 times more likely to be detained in custody than their non-Indigenous counterparts, while nationally, Indigenous youths are 19 times more likely to be placed in custody," Dr Day said.
Dr Day conducted the study with Ms Rosemary Wanganeen, a loss and grief counsellor and educator, who founded the Sacred Site Within Healing Centre.
"We were interested in how Indigenous young people used secure care services and whether there were barriers to them engaging and taking advantage of some of the programs offered," Dr Day said.
"Indigenous youth generally start their criminal activity younger than non-Indigenous offenders, developing an offending profile for longer that puts them in a higher risk category when they come into contact with police or the court system, so are more likely to be put in secure care.
"A majority of these young offenders also have higher levels of need than non-Aboriginal children, but our study reveals that they are less likely to approach staff for support, to report problems or seek help, than their non-Indigenous counterparts. This contrasts with staff reports that consistently overrate the extent to which Indigenous young people disclose problems," Dr Day said.
"Indigenous children are equally motivated to attend rehabilitation programs and identify a need to attend, but they have more negative attitudes towards the institution and its staff than non-Indigenous children."
The study recommends
- that juvenile justice programs addressing cultural sensitivities and culture-specific needs be developed for Indigenous young people in secure care
- the recruitment of Indigenous youth workers in custodial centres, with continuing staff training by an Indigenous consultant on cultural awareness and communicating with young Indigenous clients
- continuity between custodial and community based programs and the involvement of families in the care of young people when they leave secure care.
"By adopting these recommendations, we believe that cultural and communication barriers for Indigenous offenders will be broken down and that the number of repeat offences can be reduced significantly.
"Most importantly, we need to keep these young people out of the justice system in the first place. We recommend that additional funding be made available to Aboriginal organisations working specifically with Indigenous young people in secure care or at risk to help these organisations to further develop corrective learning and support programs.
"Family and Youth Services have been very supportive of the project and are very interested in our findings," Dr Day said.
Media contact
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Geraldine Hinter (08) 8302 0963 or 0417 861 832