Indigenous Women: Missing Subjects of Penal Discourse and Penal Politics
Carrington K, Ball M, O'Brien E and Tauri J (eds) Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, Houndmills UK: Palgrave Macmillan, ch17, 2012
19 Pages Posted: 13 Sep 2014
Date Written: 2012
Abstract
Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCADIC) reported in 1991, rates of incarceration of Indigenous women have grown substantially, to a greater extent than for Indigenous men. However, despite their substantial over-representation in prisons, Indigenous women too rarely feature as subjects of penal discourse or penal politics. This chapter examines how the reach of criminal justice interventions has extended further into the lives of Indigenous people, driving up prison rates, while at the same time the gendered and racialising affects of those developments have often gone unremarked. The chapter draws on the limited available data concerning Indigenous women in the criminal justice system and examines the limitations of some recent initiatives intended to reduce offending rates and to make the criminal justice system more responsive to Indigenous people. It also documents the use of anti-discrimination processes domestically and in international fora to bring attention to Indigenous women within the criminal justice system, and highlight the need to address systemic discrimination.
Keywords: Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, indigenous women, incarceration, penal discourse, penal politics, discrimination, systemic discrimination
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation