As a palpable legacy of violent colonialism, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (‘Indigenous’) Australians are the most incarcerated peoples in the world. Community policing, which hinges on the development of trusting community–police partnerships, is frequently proposed as a means of reducing this over-representation, but approaches vary and produce divergent outcomes. This article draws on interview data to explore policing in Australia’s Torres Strait Region – a remote archipelago situated off the northern tip of Queensland. A strong commitment to community and hybridised policing approaches likely provide a partial explanation for relatively low crime in the region. However, under-reporting of some offences (e.g. domestic violence) suggests a possible need to overlay alternative approaches that improve access to justice for all victims, especially women. Overall, the Torres Strait Region experience holds possible lessons for policing in Australia’s other remote Indigenous communities, again demonstrating that decolonisation is a critical starting point for addressing over-representation.
AnthonyT.BaldryE. (2017, June 6). Are Indigenous Australians the most incarcerated people on Earth? The Conversation.
2.
AtkinsonJ. (1991).
Stinkin ‘thinkin’ – Alcohol, violence and government responses. Aboriginal Law Bulletin,
2(51), 4–6.
3.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Australian Census of Population and Housing 2016, Torres Strait (IREG307), I02 Indigenous status by sex.
4.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2019, June 30). Prisoners in Australia.
5.
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). (2012). Guidelines for ethical research in Australian Indigenous studies. AIATSIS: Canberra.
6.
Australian Law Reform Commission. (2018). Pathways to justice – An inquiry into the incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
7.
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). (2014). Torres Strait Regional Authority: Service delivery. ANAO: Canberra.
8.
BayleyR. (1989). Community policing in Australia. In ChappellD.WilsonP. (Eds), Australian policing (pp. 6382).
Butterworths.
9.
BehrendtL.CunneenC.LibesmanT. (2008). Indigenous legal relations in Australia.
Oxford University Press.
10.
BlaggH. (2008). Crime, Aboriginality and the decolonisation of justice.
Hawkins Press.
BlaggH.ValuriG. (2004).
Aboriginal community patrols in Australia. Policing & Society,
14(4), 313–328.
13.
BlandfordJ.SarreR. (2009).
Policing in South Australia’s remote and rural communities. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal,
10(3), 187–197.
14.
Bringing Them Home Report. (1997). National inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Australian Government.
15.
BroadhurstR. (2002). Crime and Indigenous people. In GraycarA.GraboskyP. (Eds), The Cambridge handbook of Australian criminology (pp. 166–256).
Cambridge University Press.
16.
BullM. (2015).
Community policing and the limits of the bureaucratic state. Asian Criminology,
10, 163–177.
17.
BullM.GeorgeN.Curth-BibbJ. (2019).
The virtues of strangers? Policing gender violence in Pacific Island countries. Policing and Society,
29(2), 155–170.
18.
CefaiS. (2015).
Policing Aboriginality in Aboriginal community policing. Australian Aboriginal Studies, (1), 12–29.
19.
ChanJ. (1997). Changing police culture.
Cambridge University Press.
20.
CoolicanC. (2014). Aurukun community police trained to help their local community.
QPS.
21.
Crime and Misconduct Commission. (2012). Indigenous people in policing roles: A follow-up review to the Restoring Order report.
22.
CunneenC. (2001). Conflict, politics and crime: Aboriginal communities and the police.
Allen & Unwin.
DockeryA. (2010).
Culture and wellbeing. Social Indicators Research – An Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement,
99(2), 315–332.
25.
DwyerA.ScottJ.StainesZ. (2020). Strangers in a strange land: Police perceptions of working in discrete Indigenous communities in Queensland. Australia. Police Practice & Research,
22(1), 208–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2020.1759058
26.
Fitzgerald Inquiry. (1989). Commission of inquiry into possible illegal activities and associated police misconduct. Queensland Government.
27.
FranklandK. (1994). A brief history of government administration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland.
Queensland Government.
28.
HarnettP.FeatherstoneG. (2020).
The role of decision making in the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the Australian child protection system. Children Youth and Services Review,
113, 1–7.
29.
HazlehurstK. (1987). Ivory scales: Black Australia and the law.
UNSW Press.
30.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. (1991). Racist violence.
Australian Government.
31.
JobesP. (2002).
Effective officer and good neighbour. Policing,
25(2), 256–273.
32.
JonesN.RuddellR.SummerfieldT. (2019).
Community policing: Perceptions of officers policing Indigenous communities. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice,
61(1), 41−65.
33.
LoaderI. (2016).
In search of civic policing. Criminal Law and Philosophy,
10, 427–440.
34.
LucashenkoM.BestO. (1995).
Woman bashing: An urban Aboriginal perspective. Social Alternatives,
14, 19–22.
35.
MarksD.YardleyL. (2004). Methods for clinical and health psychology.
Sage Publications.
36.
MemmottP.StacyR.ChambersC.KeysC. (2001). Violence in Indigenous communities.
Australian Government.
37.
MilesM.HubermanA. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.).
Sage Publications.
38.
MitchellM.RowseT. (2011).
Police officers’ experience of Indigenous ‘capacity’. Australian Indigenous Law Review,
15(1), 34–46.
39.
Moreton-RobinsonA. (2004). Whiteness, epistemology and Indigenous representation. In Moreton-RobinsonA. (Ed.), Whitening race (pp. 7–88).
Aboriginal Studies Press.
40.
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). (2007). National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. NHMRC: Canberra.
41.
PassiG. (1986). Traditional resource knowledge, western education and self-management autonomy of the Torres Strait [Master’s thesis]. University of Queensland.
42.
PorterA. (2018).
Non-state policing, legal pluralism and the mundane governance of ‘crime. Sydney Law Review,
40, 444–467.
43.
PuttJ. (2010). Community policing in Australia.
Australian Institute of Criminology.
44.
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. (1991). Final report. Australian Government.
45.
RyanL.PascoeW.DebenhamJ., Gilbert, S., Richards, J., Smith, R., Owen, C., Anders, R. J., Brown, M., Price, D., Newley, J., & Usher, K. (2019). Colonial frontier massacres in Australia, 1788 − 1930: Timeline.https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/timeline.php
46.
SarreR. (2005).
Police and the public. Current Issues in Criminal Justice,
17(2), 305313.
47.
ScottJ.HoggR. (2015).
Strange and stranger ruralities: Social constructions of rural crime in Australia. Journal of Rural Studies,
39, 171–179.
48.
ScottJ.JobesP. (2007). Policing in rural Australia: The country cop as law enforcer and local resident. In BarclayE.DonnermeyerJ.ScottJ.HoggR. (Eds), Crime in rural Australia (pp. 127–137).
Federation Press.
49.
ScottJ.MortonJ. (2018). Understanding crime and justice in Torres Strait Islander communities. In CarringtonK.HoggR.ScottJ.SozzoM. (Eds), The Palgrave handbook of criminology and the global south.
Palgrave.
50.
ScottJ.StainesZ. (2020). Charting the place of islands in criminology: On isolation, integration and insularity. Theoretical Criminology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480620910250
51.
ScottJ.StainesZ.MortonJ. (2021). Crime and justice in the Torres Strait Region.
Australian Institute of Criminology.
52.
ShnukalA. (2015).
Aspects of early local administration, education, health and population on Mabuyag. Culture, (2), 55–125.
53.
SingeJ. (1979). The Torres Strait: People and history.
University of Queensland Press.
54.
SozerM.MerloA. (2013).
The impact of community policing on crime rates: Does the effect of community policing differ in large and small law enforcement agencies?Police Practice and Research,
14(6), 506 − 521.
55.
SpradleyJ. (1979). The ethnographic interview.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
56.
StainesZ.MarstonG.BielefeldS.HumpageL.MendesP.PeterieM. (2020). Governing poverty: Compulsory income management and crime in Australia. Critical Criminology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-020-09532-2
57.
StainesZ.ScottJ. (2020).
Crime and colonisation in Australia’s Torres Strait Islands. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology,
53(1), 25–43.
58.
Torres Strait Island Community Police. (2007). Submission to the CMC Inquiry into policing in Indigenous communities. CMC.
59.
ValentinJ. (2007). An independent assessment of policing in remote Indigenous communities for the Government of Australia.
Australian Government.
