Exploring Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Sentencing in Queensland

Abstract

[Extract] In Queensland, on the 19th of December 2000, the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Agreement (Justice Agreement) was signed. The aim of the Justice Agreement is to reduce the rate of Indigenous people coming into contact with the criminal justice system, and to achieve a 50% reduction in the rate of Indigenous incarceration by the year 2011. The first independent evaluation of the Justice Agreement was undertaken in 2005 (Cunneen, Collings and Ralph, 2005). Recommendation 7 of this evaluation proposed the development of an Indigenous Criminal Justice Research Agenda to address the deficit in our understanding of key factors associated with Indigenous offending and victimisation; to identify how the system can effectively respond to these issues; and to drive policy initiatives.