Race, crime and region: the socio-spatial dynamics of Aboriginal offending 1

Abstract

Patterns of indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice systems of settler societies such as Australia and Canada exhibit a strong spatial component, with rural and remote regions showing higher levels both of serious crime and of punitive response. In Australia, these patterns have been the subject of recent cultural geographies of Aboriginal offending which rely on limited functionalist models of the effects of modernisation. An alternative model is proposed, which interprets these variations in the light of socio-spatial theories of postmodernisation. A probit analysis of rates of Aboriginal offending across Australian jurisdictions reveals a close relationship between levels of seriousness of crime and levels of cultural stability and socioeconomic stress.